Accra Chamber of Commerce holds meeting

Accra, June 13, GNA - The Accra Regional Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Wednesday, appealed to government to strictly enforce the regulations that prevent foreigners from petty trading as those market areas were previously reserved solely for Ghanaians. Members said that the activities of the foreign businessmen were killing the retail sector, citing the recent influx of cheap products on the market.

These concerns were raised at the Chamber's 513th monthly meeting to discuss issues affecting its members and also educate them on current developments in the business sector.

Mr Douglas Akuamoah Boateng, Chief Executive Officer of Continental Christian Traders Limited (CCT), said it was becoming a common practice on the market, where foreign nationals use Ghanaians as frontiers to set up retail shops.

He attributed the current phenomena to lapses in the national laws as well as the absence of stringent policies that prohibit foreigners from entering into retail businesses in the country. Mr. Boateng, who chaired the meeting, stated that this concern had been raised at various meetings without any concrete feedback, saying, "as much as we appreciate and welcome trade partnerships with other nationals, we must not sit down for our businesses to collapse to favour their gains."

Ms Rosemary Hansen, Managing Director, Credit Reference Bureau Ghana Limited, who gave a talk on the New Credit Report Bill, said when fully operational, it would ensure proper management of businesses and reduce physical cash flows in transactions.

She said it was the aim of government to move the country from an era of cash to credit base adding that Credit Reference Bureau would collect information on businesses and process them for the financial institutions as well as other organisations. She also said the credit report would further allow easy access to credits from banks due to the high security of tracing the backgrounds of companies to ascertain their credibility. 13 June 07