The new Kejetia market, one of Ghana’s largest commercial centres, has come to a halt after the facility’s management severed energy supply to nearly 7,000 merchants on Wednesday.
This comes after weeks of unresolved disputes over the payment of electricity bills between dealers and management.
Following the refusal of vendors to pay their power bills and other service charges, the management of the New Kejetia Market locked up hundreds of stores earlier this week.
In revenge, the traders closed the management members’ offices.
Several complaints to the market’s management to give each business with personal meters have proved futile, according to the traders.
In an interview with Citi News, the head of the Federation of Kumasi Traders, Nana Akwasi Prempeh, remarked, “We’ve asked management and the board that for 7,203 stores to get one meter, it is ridiculous.”
Because the facility’s administration failed to assure the availability of self-meters, the traders’ leadership instructed its members not to pay any bills to the management.
The shops’ electricity supply has been cut off as a result of this decision.
The shopkeepers are adamant that they would not pay any bills to the management until each business is given with a personal meter.
“They had the documentation in their custody for all of the requests they were making in order to make the deal official.” If they sign the supplier contract before Monday, we, the leadership, will go around to each store and instruct our members to pay their previous invoices. Subsequently, on the outstanding five-month bills, we’ll sit down with them and compile all of the figures, which we’ll then distribute among our members,” Nana Akwasi Prempeh added.
