By Patrick Biddah
Government, has pledged to offer more support to traders at the Katamanto market, whose wares were razed down by fire few weeks ago.
The support is expected to come in the form of interest free and low interest loans to help the traders bounce back into business, since many of them lost their capital through the inferno.
The Greater Accra Regional Minister, Esther Ocloo, made this pledge when she made a field visit to the Kankamanto market in Accra on February 20, 2025.
She said the government’s campaign promise of establishing a women’s development bank is targeted at such traders and it is the reason government intends to give out more support to the affected traders through the loan- free loans and low interest loans from the Women Development Bank.
Already, government through the Chief of Staff, Mr Julius Debrah, has made a cash donation of Ghc1million to the traders.
The Minister, who is also the Member of Parliament for Shai-Osudoku, entreated the traders to take their fire safety measures seriously in the sense that it is the only way they can avert such devastating outbreaks from occurring again in such magnitude.
She promised to collaborate with them in leading the policy direction of the region, stressing that her doors are opened to views and suggestions.
The Minister later toured part of the Rawlings Park, which is also in the Central Business District.
Receiving the Minister, the Chairman of the Katamanto Used Clothes Sellers Association, Mr Opoku Afreh, expressed gratitude to the Minister and her government .
According to him, the NDC administration has stood with them in this hard time by not only donating cash to help them to rebuild but also with their physical presence.
She mentioned personalities like the Vice President, Prof Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, the Minister for Trade, Mrs. Elizabeth Ofosu-Agyare, and the administrator of the Mineral Investment Fund Dr Hannah Louisa Bisiw, as the NDC people who have come to sympathise with them.
He used the occasion to announce that disbursement of the Ghc1 m donated by the NDC government will commerce today, February 21,2025 to 8,000 members.
