The Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS) says it is adequately prepared for the resumption of business activities at the New Kejetia Market in the Ashanti Region after the facility was gutted by fire.
Despite traders’ protests, market management had previously decided that the facility would be closed for another week to allow for investigations.
However, Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia announced on Monday that the decision had been reversed after preliminary reports ruled out electrical faults as the cause of the inferno.
In an interview with Citi News, ACFO Timothy Osafo-Afum, Head of Public Relations at the Ghana National Fire Service (GNFS), emphasized the importance of being more safety conscious.
“You don’t learn about what to do where there is an emergency. You must learn it long before the emergency comes, so you apply what you know. So let us be safety conscious and do what is expected of us so that in the time of emergency, we know what exactly to do.”
The New Kejetia Market in the Ashanti Region would reopen for business today after being closed for four days.
Last Wednesday, fire destroyed over 30 shops in the market.
Following a meeting with the leadership of the traders, the Ghana National Fire Service agreed to close the facility for a few days to allow for uninterrupted investigations.
The board also ordered that the facility should remain closed for another week.
Reuben Amey, General Secretary of the Kumasi Traders Association, told Citi News that the continuous closure would have harmed their finances.
“Even if they had opened the market yesterday March 20, we would have loved it. We traders are really suffering from the closure of the market. Though we are suffering, we accepted the 3-day closure, but any further delay in the reopening, we will suffer too much. We have already suffered losses when the market was razed by fire”.
