Traders at Suame Magazine, the largest industrial cluster in Ghana, have expressed their dissatisfaction with the performance of President Nana Akufo-Addo and his government and called for the return of former President John Mahama in the 2024 election.
Suame Magazine, located in Kumasi, the capital of the Ashanti Region, is home to over 200,000 workers and 12,000 small businesses, mainly dealing with metal engineering and vehicle repairs.
The traders, who spoke to the media on Friday, January 26, 2024, said they had been disappointed by the unfulfilled promises of Akufo-Addo, especially in the areas of infrastructure, taxation, and importation.
“We don’t have anything to tell him again. All Nana’s promises never happened. He even promised to build a hospital for us, but he never did. After 8 years,” one of the traders said.
Another trader lamented the high cost of importing goods from the port, saying it had affected their businesses negatively.
“The amount of money we use when we are going to get more items, we pay more than that at the port when we get there. Why? What is going on in Ghana is not good, so we are pleading with John Mahama that if he listens to us, we too, we will listen to him. So we beg him he should come and help us here at Magazine. We the scrap dealers and the spare parts dealers are suffering,” he said.
The traders also compared the economic situation under Akufo-Addo and Mahama, and said there was a huge difference in favour of the latter.
“Ghana is not developed yet, but if we compare what Mahama did during his time and what Akufo-Addo has done, there is a huge difference. During Akufo-Addo’s time, cement is 100 cedis, but during Mahama’s time it was 28 cedis. If you look at the difference. Akufo-Addo has destroyed the country in 8 years. So we want Mahama to continue,” another trader said.
A shop owner said his wife always goes home crying because of low sales, and blamed it on the poor economic management of Akufo-Addo.
“My wife has a shop here. She always comes home crying. She says people are unable to buy anything. So sometimes she comes home without sales,” he said.
The traders said they were praying for John Mahama, popularly known as JM, to come back to power and rescue them from their hardships.
“The way the job was when NDC was in power, now it is not so. Everything has reduced. So we are all praying that John Mahama will come back into power. JM should come back,” they said.
John Mahama, who is the presidential candidate of the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), has been making efforts to woo the voters in the Ashanti Region, promising to complete all the abandoned projects initiated by his government.
Mahama is expected to face Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia, who is the presidential candidate of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), in the 2024 election.