The Public Relations Officer of the Kantamanto Traders Association, Rev. Opoku Afreh, has expressed gratitude for the support the market has received from politicians and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) following the devastating fire that destroyed many traders’ structures.
However, he voiced concerns that the total donations so far remain insufficient to fully address their needs.
In an interview with 3news on January 24, Rev. Afreh acknowledged the generous contributions, including GHC1 million from President John Dramani Mahama, GHC200,000 from former Vice President, GHC50,000 from New Force Flagbearer Nana Kwame Bediako, and additional funds from various NGOs. Despite these contributions, he stressed that more financial aid is needed to help traders rebuild their businesses and restart their livelihoods.
“We are grateful for the support so far, but we are still appealing to Ghanaians to come to our aid since we need capital to start all over again,” Rev. Afreh said.
He also addressed concerns from some traders who have requested direct distribution of the donations. “Let no one in this market say they’ve not received money from us the executives because that’s the money we’re using to fix the market, and we shall account for any single donation at the end of it all,” he clarified. He further explained that there are over 4,000 traders in Kantamanto, making it impractical to share the donations equally among everyone. The priority, he emphasized, is to rebuild the market and restore the traders’ shops as soon as possible.
While the efforts to restore Kantamanto are ongoing, the traders remain hopeful that more assistance will come in to help them fully recover from the destruction caused by the fire.
