NBSSI disburses GH¢1.83 million to affected traders of Odawna market fire

The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has begun disbursement of stimulus packages to traders whose shops were destroyed by fire at the Odawna Market.

This followed the completion of the registration of the victims of the Odawna fire outbreak on Wednesday, November 25, 2020.

As at the close of work on Tuesday, December 1, 2020, 625 fire victims had received support from NBSSI with GH¢1.83 million cedis disbursed.

In all, the NBSSI will take care of 1,000 out of the 2,000 registered traders while MASLOC supports the rest.

The NBSSI's registration exercise began on Saturday, November 21 and involved the collection of the details of the affected traders, including the capital they would need to restart their businesses.

The Executive Director of NBSSI Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, during a working visit to the Odawna market at the time to assess the extent of damages caused by the recent fire outbreak, said the registration exercise was ongoing.

She said the NBSSI was working with the Odawna Market Traders Association and the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly to ensure that, the funds were disbursed to victims of the disaster and not imposters.

"The NBSSI is frantically working to complete all the necessary profiling of the requests from the traders to be able to offer them some loan support," she said.

“We started registering them, it is still ongoing; we want to get a good database and get to know the specific needs of the traders. We want to provide the right assistance to each and everyone that registers. Apart from that, the data would help in future planning to meet the needs of the market.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo during a visit to the market on Wednesday, November 18, 2020 directed the NBSSI to make available funds to support traders who had their wares destroyed by the fire.

President Akufo-Addo said the directive was to help the affected traders recover from their losses.

He also indicated that the government would undertake a re-wiring of all markets in the Greater Accra Region to forestall such tragic occurrences in the future.