Traders are calling on the government to implement policies that will support small scale businesses in post-COVID-19 since the business landscape has been slow since the outbreak of the pandemic.

According to them, Minister-designate Joseph Cudjoe must come up with a policy that captures their interest when he is allowed to lead the Ministry.

“The Minister must be able to draft a policy that will benefit we the traders, we are really suffering because trading doesn’t go well and sales have dropped due to the outbreak of the pandemic, the COVID-19 pandemic is still having an impact on our trading activities and the high-interest rate from the banks are also adding more challenges to our woes,” they said.

According to the traders, even though some policies govern their operations, they do not benefit from them.

“We pay taxes and they promise us good markets and a whole lot yet we don’t see any improvement, we are still in square one. Every morning we pay taxes to the tax collectors, the leaders of the market will punish you if you don’t pay but still, we don’t see any development” Bridget Quaye one of the traders at the Kaneshie Market in Accra told GhanaWeb.

She further stated that “we are not able to pay back bank loans due to the high-interest rate and because of that most of the traders have to lock up and stay home because they can’t pay back the loans”.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise Ministry is a newly established government institution that will ensure that trade activities in the country are conducted smoothly according to law and also integrate the private and government sectors to grow the economy of the country.