The Ministry of Local Government, Decentralization and Rural Development has directed temporal closure of the Kumasi Kejetia market until further notice.
According to the government, this will allow the technical and security institutions looking into the fire event that happened last Wednesday, March 14, 2023 ample time to determine the precise cause of the fire.
On March 14, 2023, in the evening, a fire completely destroyed the Kumasi Kejetia Market, destroying products worth thousands of Ghana cedis.
A day after the fire occurred, the market was shut down to allow for the start of the investigation process.
Osei Bonsu Amoah, the Minister of State Designate in Charge of Local Government, revealed that the Ministry will form a committee to look into the fire event during a visit by a delegation from the Local Government Ministry.
The market is to remain closed until security organizations deem it safe for it to reopen, according to Mr. O.B. Amoah's directive.
He further stated that the market would remain shut until the investigators and security services had completed their analysis.
“The initial closure period is three days but depending on the advice of the consultants and the stakeholders, it could go beyond three days; it could be a week, it could be three weeks, or even more, and for our safety we will extend the period to let the committee do its work,” he added.
The Kumasi mayor, who was a member of the delegation, also guaranteed that the Metropolitan Assembly will see to it that procedures were completed more quickly so that the traders could get back to work as soon as possible.
Nana Kwasi Prempeh, president of the Federation of Kejetia Merchants Association, applauded the local government ministry for expressing worry over the Kejetia market's development.
Yet he begged the Local Government Ministry to allow the Kejetia traders a chance to be heard during the committee meeting.
He also said that closing the entire market would have an adverse economic impact on their members and that it would be preferable for businesses to avoid the impacted areas.
