The Foreign Traders Association has denied allegations levelled against them by the Trades Union Congress of taking over the retail business in Ghana.
Traders at UTC in Accra’s Central Business District (CBD) closed their shops on Monday morning in protest of the influx of foreigners in the retail space.
The aggrieved traders, most of whom are members of the Traders Advocacy Group (TAGG), insist that foreigners, by entering the retail business instead of focusing on selling on a wholesale basis, are perpetuating an illegality and driving the predominantly Ghanaian retailers out of business.
But speaking to Umaru Amadu on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, the spokesperson for the foreign traders, Abdul Malik, denied the allegations and described such accusations as baseless and without merit.
“The allegations are baseless and without merit, and they cannot be substantiated. The people they are making these allegations against are engaged in legitimate business and not in retail; they are in wholesale as the law stipulates. These people are engaged in legal business and are operating within the laws of the country. We have been engaging in legitimate operations, offering our products to Ghanaians at relatively cheap prices. We engage in wholesale, and their allegations are a product of their imaginations.”
The Traders Advocacy Group also threatened to seek an interpretation of the GIPC Act forbidding non-Ghanaians from engaging in retail trade. Abdul Malik told Umaru Sanda Amadu that his outfit is prepared to demonstrate to any court that they are operating within the bounds of the law.
“We are law-abiding businessmen and businesswomen in Ghana, so if there is evidence that we have breached the law, let the law take its course, and we will defend our case in court, showing that we are engaged in wholesale businesses and not retail trade.”