If city officials do nothing, the recently built Kejetia Market, which is located in the center of Kumasi, could soon turn into a white elephant.
Due to exorbitant power prices, the majority of the store owners who invested significant sums of money years ago to secure premises in the building are now closing their businesses.
One bulk meter from the power generators is said to be all that the market’s nearly 7,000 locked shops and tables need to function.
The market management is accused of dividing the shops’ tariff at the end of each month without consulting anyone. According to reports, this has caused enormous power debts on the market. Almost all of the store owners in the market have protested against this power-bailing scheme because they see it as unfair.
Reports state that shop owners’ requests for the facility’s managers to give them individual meters have been ignored. Some of the store owners vehemently griped that the outrageous power rates they were being charged were eroding their capital and ruining their enterprises.
A debt of ECG GH 5m
In a related incident, it has come to light that the new Kejetia Market owes the astronomical sum of GH5 million in outstanding payments to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). The power producers reportedly made it plain that they would only think about giving the shops separate meters when the debt had been paid off.
However, according to Nana Akwasi Prempeh, president of the Federation of Kumasi Traders, several traders have already shut their doors.
He believed that the Kejetia Market’s management should be held accountable for delaying the installation of separate meters for the merchants in order to prevent fraud.
The mayor of Kumasi, Sam Pyne, is reportedly upset about the commotion at Kejetia and has personally intervened to secure separate meters for the shops.
The KMA Chieftain, according to sources in the media, has requested a meeting of all interested parties at Kejetia the next week to develop a roadmap for installing separate meters.
