Decongesting Accra: Minister proposes construction of 'Spare Parts Village'

A proposal for the construction of a spare parts village to address the congestion situation at Abossey Okai and Kokompe spare parts markets in Accra has been made by Greater Accra regional minister, Henry Quartey.

He said that the government is ready to lend support to the idea as long as traders help make the dream come true.

He made this known during a deliberation he had with the leaders of the Kokompe and Abossey Okai spare parts dealers’ associations, reports citinewsroom.com.

The minister explained that both leaders of the Abossey Okai and Kokompe markets “have openly told us that they have two major challenges relating to the decongestion of the Abossey streets. And they told us that they are ready to collaborate with us in ensuring that people who have not been authorized to do business on those streets are moved.”

One of the leaders from the Kokompe market expressed his support for the project in the words, “What they are doing there is indiscipline, and we will not condone that indiscipline so whenever they [government] are ready to embark on that decongestion, we have pledged our assistance to them so that they can move all those guys from the road for free flow of traffic.”

Another leader from the Abossey Okai market, supported his colleague with the words, “When you come to our market especially Kokompe and Abossey Okai, how the place is parked with vehicles on the sides of the road, we said we should clear it so that the road will be free for people to pass. We are going to speak to our members so from next week at least we are going to give them till the end of this week so that next week we can clear the area.”

Following this, Henry Quartey, who is also the Member of Parliament for Ayawaso Central, has “directed the two Municipal Assemblies thus Ablekuma North and Ablekuma Central to engage both Chairmen of the Abossey Okai and Kokompe spare parts dealers’ associations to visit the [proposed] land to see whether indeed the land has not been encroached. They should try and get all the necessary documents indicating that that land was procured by them.”

He concluded by stressing that, “Once that has been done, we will assist them to engage the services of lawyers to come out with proposals where financial interests will fade in to support them and then get them architectural designs to build what I will want to call a ‘Spare Parts Village’ in Ghana.”