Some traders who were relocated to the La-Nkwatanang Basic School from Madina Zongo Junction in Accra have moved back onto the streets.
The traders were moved to the school by the La-Nkwatanang Municipal Assembly as part of the efforts to decongest the streets of Madina and ensure social distancing to curtail the spread of COVID-19.
But a visit by Citi News to the area showed that the traders are flouting the social distancing protocol.
Some traders said it is difficult for them to abide by the directives as most of their potential customers prefer to shop on the streets.
The first trader said “Displaying your items is not a problem but locating the customers is the problem. After displaying items and they are not bought, it becomes a waste of time and energy. We came here because our items are not bought there and some going bad,” she narrated.
Another trader added: “Most of us market women are the ones taking care of the house now and when we sell, we don’t make profits because the city guards are always after us. How do we cope with this?” she quizzed.
But the Public Relations Officer for the La-Nkwatanang Municipal Assembly, Isaac Odoom Agyin said the authorities will continue to ensure that the traders comply with the laid-down directives.
“It’s like they don’t even believe that the disease is real. When we go there to educate them, they think it’s the disease for the whites but we will continue to ensure that stricter measures are put in place for them to comply with the directives because we are not used to these measures but we all have to play our parts to help contain the spread of the disease,” he said.
Relocation and Market closures
A number of District and Municipal Assemblies are taking measures to space out their markets in a bid to help contain the spread of the novel Coronavirus in the country.
Some have relocated their main markets to other spacier places to ensure social distancing is adhered to.