Businesses along Nima gutter have no permits – Municipal Director

The string of businesses along the Nima-Mamoobi gutter largely compromises cattle rearing, concrete moulding, mobile money merchants, fish sellers, scrap dealers and several others. All cramped up along the gutter which separates Nima from Mamoobi.

While this practice may appear unhygienic and dangerous, business owners who are also residents say they have no other viable alternatives.

They have however blamed their woes on authorities, who they claim charge taxes and levies for the spaces they occupy yet leave them to the wrath of the rains and filth.

“But for the outbreak of the coronavirus, you’d have come to meet them here taking fees from us. These days they’ve stopped coming…for the year, the AMA takes GH¢50 - GH¢80 from us. The Assembly also comes round to takes some fees as well but we don’t see any changes here…, ” a trader along the drain told GhanaWeb.

But the Municipal Director at the Physical Planning Department, Baba Yakubu Mahamah, told GhanaWeb in an exclusive interview that all businesses along the Nima gutter have no permits or authorization, however, ejecting them have been difficult.

He explained that most of such traders live in the area and spring up few days after their eviction.

“The Nima drain is what divides the Ayawaso North from the Ayawaso East and all businesses set up along the Ayawaso East section are unauthorized. None has permit to operate there…Those that have established some level of permanency are the cattle herders, scrap dealers and block moulders, they’re virtually there 24/7. I still go back to what I said earlier, they’re all unauthorized…,” Mr Yakubu Mahamah emphasized.

With regards to the payments of levies and charges, he said those are fees they ought to pay as business people not for permit or authorization to use such spaces.