Coronavirus: Sunyani hawkers complain about closure of Bosoma market

Hawkers in the Sunyani Municipality have complained about the closure of the Nana Bosoma market by city authorities.

The situation, they told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in a market survey, had slowed down their economic activities affecting their livelihoods.

As part of measures to control the spread of the COVID-19 disease in the Sunyani Municipality, the ‘city’ authorities have some weeks now, shutdown the Nana Bosoma Central Market till further notice.

Since then, traders from far and near who used to throng the market to buy and sell mostly on Wednesdays, official market day in Sunyani have stopped.

But the hawkers - head potters, truck, and wheelbarrow pushers noted that the closure of the market had tremendously affected their businesses and many of them could not fend for themselves and their families.

They appealed to the Sunyani Municipal Assembly to supply them with food items, and nose masks to enable them to also protect themselves against contracting the COVID-19.

Sheriff Atinga, a truck pusher who resides around the market said some of his colleagues were students who had migrated from the northern part of the country to engage in menial jobs to enable them to save some money to pay their fees when school re-opens.

He said because of the market’s closure, socio-economic lives have become unbearable for many of them including single mothers.

Meanwhile, several traders who spoke to the GNA within the central business district of Sunyani on Friday appealed to the Assembly to re-open the market for business activity to bounce back in the Municipality.

They said they expected city authorities to ensure that traders complied with the social and physical distancing protocols instead of closing the market, which had adversely affected the socio-economic lives of some people.

Madam Leticia Gyan, a trader in second-hand clothing said it would be difficult for some of the petty traders to pay their wards and children school fees if the market remained closed.