Involve trade unions in Ghana-Nigeria talks – GUTA to govt

The Ghana Union of Traders’ Association (GUTA) is calling for them to be included in the ongoing trade related discussions between Ghana and Nigeria.

This follows the arrival of a Nigeria delegation to Ghana to mitigate ways of improving an ongoing trade impasse between Ghanaian and Nigerian retail traders.

According to the president of the association, Dr Joseph Obeng, the deliberations would amount to nothing if the association is not well represented during the talks.

“We [GUTA] and the business community must be included in this ongoing trade related discussions. Laws are made for the well-being of the citizenry. So, if even you are going to engage in a friendly act, the citizens should agree with that act. They the [Nigerian delegation] must also understand the act too. Whatever it is, if you engage the citizens of the country, they will appreciate it as it inures to their benefit,” Dr Obeng said in an interview.

“What the Nigerians did was very serious. It nearly brought a huge misunderstanding between the two nations. They have to be cautioned lest they cause mayhem in the country. They don’t have good intentions for the country,” he lamented.

Meanwhile, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has proposed for the establishment of a Ghana-Nigeria Business Council to superintend over trade and investment relations.

Addressing Nigeria’s Speaker of Parliament, Olufemi Gbajabiamila in Accra on September 3, 2020, the president indicated the timing was right for such a council to be established.

“The idea of legislation to promote a Ghana-Nigeria Business Council, that will have superintendence over trade and investment matters between our two countries, is well overdue. It is events that produce institutions, and the time has come for it to be done,” President Akufo-Addo said.

He added, “It will be a good idea to also set up a Joint Ministerial Committee for Ministers on both sides, who would be responsible for shepherding Ghana-Nigerian issues, and reporting to both Presidents at any time when matters occur, and how they should be resolved.”

In December 2019, the Ghana Union of Traders (GUTA) locked up over six hundred shops belonging to Nigerian retailers at Nkrumah Circle in Accra.

Most of the shops belonging to Nigerian traders in Kumasi in the Ashanti region were also forced to shut down that year after Ghanaian traders alleged that Nigerian traders had taken over the retail business in the country.

This move caused a clash between Ghanaian traders and Nigerian traders leading some persons involved to be arrested while others were badly injured.