Kantamanto traders cry for help

About 99 per cent of traders at the Kantamanto Market in Accra, who lost their property in a ferocious fire last month, are struggling to raise money to transact business because they had no insurance cover.

Out of about 15,000 traders, who lost their wares, during the fire outbreak, less than one percent (100) traders have been able to start operations thanks to insurance policies which they secured from some banks and insurance companies.

Fortunately, for such traders, the loans they contracted from Stanbic Bank Ghana and Advans Ghana and other companies had insurance components that covered them in the event of any disaster.

It would be recalled that a few days after the fire, officials from the aforementioned companies wrote off the debt of the traders.

But the over 14,900 traders who had no insurance cover, their fate is still hanging in the balance, as they are now trying to put the pieces together financially.

Even though the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) requested for a list of traders, who lost their wares to the fire, it is unclear what the institution would do to assist the victims.

Government has also promised an amount of GH¢2,000,000 to victims at the Kantamanto Market and Makola No. 2 market, which was gutted by fire.

A lot of the victims have dependants at home while a greater number are widows and single parents.

Owing to the disaster, most of their dependants are facing challenges. Samuel Amoah, chairman of the Kantamanto Traders Association, who spoke to this paper in an interview yesterday, said he has not seen most of his members since the development.

“We also trying to put up temporary wooden structures and this cost GH¢100.00 per shed. Now, we do not know what to do since we have to make ends meet at home on a daily basis. Also, we would have loved to construct the market but the land does not belong to us and Government has not come out clear on how it will handle us should it build the market. We are simply in a blackout,” he said.

When this paper visited the market site yesterday, it realized that the many customers had abandoned the wares of most traders.

Most customers bought clothes that sold between GH¢0.50 and GH¢1.00 at the entrance.

Other people, who were spotted at the place, had registered and paid for the new structures being put up by the Association.