The Nigeria Union of Traders in Ghana (NUTAG) has urged Federal Government to take urgent steps as regards the closure of Nigerian businesses in Ghana.
President of NUTAG, Mr. Chukwuemeka Nnaji, in a telephone interview yesterday with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) said that “they have continued to lock up our businesses, including our warehouses, and also harass our business partners.
“This implies that they really want us to run out of basic supplies like food or other amenities of life.
“We are appealing to our government to help so that Nigerian traders here will not die of hunger.”
He added “We are ready to return to Nigeria if that is the only option; we are not violating any law in Ghana, but Ghanaian authorities are treating us like outcasts in their dealings with us.
“They are denying us our rights by delaying the renewal of our resident permit and increasing and introducing new fees every now and then.”
Meanwhile, the acting Vice President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Clement Boateng, has said that Nigerians whose shops are shut will have to pay the $1m fee and comply with other business laws in the country before the reopening of their shops.
On Monday, August 10, 2020, Ghanaian authorities moved round requesting registration of business taxes, resident permit, standard control and Ghana Investment Promotion Council (GIPC) registration certificates which according to the president of Nigeria Union of Traders in Ghana (NUTAG), Chukwuemeka Nnaji, many Nigerian shops owners in Ghana don’t have it -it costs one million dollars cash or equity.
Boateng said any foreigner who wants to run a retail business in Ghana is expected to pay the fee in cash or equity as stated in the Ghana Investment Promotion Council Act (GIPC) adding that the GIPC states that traders who are foreigners must employ a minimum of 25 skilled Ghanaian workers.
According to him, the law, which was passed by Ghanaian parliament in 1994 was not made to drive foreigners away.
He said, “The Ghana Union of Traders Association has, over the years, complained to the authorities to try as much as possible to enforce the law, so that they can sanitises the retail industry. It is not that we are driving foreigners away”.
However, Senate Minority Leader, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe described the action as an endorsement of xenophobic attacks.
In a statement by his Media Adviser, Uchenna Awom, the senator described the act as “criminal and very disturbing”
Abaribe said “The authorities in that country need to prove us wrong by putting a halt to further closure of the shops and attacks on Nigerians in compliance to the Economic Community of West African Countries (ECOWAS) protocol.
“So what’s the point having an economic community if at the end of the day each country resolves to make laws and regulations that are in contradiction with the binding protocol.
“This is quite absurd as it negates the spirit that propelled the formation of ECOWAS in the first place”
