Members of the Combined Kumasi Central Market Traders Association are intensifying calls for urgent action to complete the Kumasi Central Market redevelopment project.

Expressing dissatisfaction with the current state of the project, the traders, and direct beneficiaries, emphasized their concerns about the contractor’s absence from the site since January of the previous year.

Despite attempts to engage stakeholders, including Ashanti Regional Minister Simon Osei Mensah, the traders claim their pleas have been ignored. Fearing the potential threat to their livelihoods, the association is appealing to Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II for swift intervention.

Emelia Kwofie Asare, Secretary of the Combined Kumasi Central Market Traders Union said, “We came the first time about a year ago with an appeal. This time, we are not appealing; we are demanding that it is done for us. It is our right, and we demand it. What we have come to know is that the NPP government is taking us for a joke. I think the NPP government keeps lying to us, and we are not taking this anymore. That is our message to the sitting government”.

“This is the stronghold of the NPP. We were looking at them; we were counting on them to work for us. That is why we voted them into power. Unfortunately, the Ashanti region is disappointed; Kumasi is disappointed, the central market is disappointed, traders of the Kumasi Combined Central Market Union are disappointed. So, we are going to act now and do what we think will please us… Now we are appealing to Otumfuo to rise and resurrect the central market. The NPP government has killed the central market. We are asking the Asantehene to raise it up again.”