Accra lockdown: 'Kayayei' return to Northern Ghana

Following the announcement of a partial lockdown of some parts of the country by President Akufo-Addo on Friday night March 27, some head porters also known as ‘Kayayei’ are returning back to the Northern region due to insufficient provision of their needs.

For many of these ‘Kayayei’ who have no places or homes to stay in, they find their abodes on street pavements and market corners mainly in the central business districts of Accra.

It is common to find these young women sleeping on the floor, some with even their children at night, on these pavements trying to get some rest before returning to their daily hustle of head porting.

When GhanaWeb visited a station in Accra where some head porters were lodging, they expressed concerns, worried that the outbreak of the novel Coronavirus pandemic will impact market activity and render them jobless.

“Because of the disease, you know they’re going to lock all the markets and some of our sisters work around Accra Central, Tudu, Malata and yesterday his excellency said he’s going to lock up the country for two weeks so when they are here, there will be no jobs and they cannot get any goods to carry”

“Some of them even have husbands, parents and children back in the North so when they remain here nobody is going to take care of them and the government cannot provide them with their needs so they’re going back to their homes in the North and return back after the virus has been contained.”

One gentleman adds that most of the head porters have already boarded buses to return back to their homes.

Some parts of the country will for the next two weeks go into a partial lockdown as parts of measures by the state to contain the spread of the novel Coronavirus outbreak in Ghana.

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