Traders at the New Kejetia Market in Kumasi have vowed not to pay any electricity bill in until their utility challenges are resolved.
The decision, the traders said is borne out of the refusal of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to provide each store/shop with its own metre.
According to the traders, all the shops in the market are connected to a single billing meter; a situation which they claim is very bad and affecting their finances.
The President of the Kumasi Traders Association, Nana Akwasi Prempeh, in an interview earlier said:
“A single month’s electricity bill could accrue to Gh¢435,634.67. A shop owner could pay Gh¢1,700 and Gh¢1,800 per month, whiles persons who trade on tables could pay Gh¢70 depending on the monthly total bill for all the traders. This is too high and we are tired of consuming that fire”. Nana Prempeh said.
According to the association’s leader, traders have been instructed and as a result, “no one will pay light bill, neither would anyone pay service charges” until the Management and Board of Directors of the market act on their demand.
Nana Prempeh said he suspects the ‘authorities might have some personal interests hence their decision to connect the whole market to the single metre’.
He added the traders will not pay a pessewa to the ECG until the ‘authorities come to explain to us why the whole market has been connected to the single metre’.
Meanwhile, traders have hanged red paraphernalia in front of their shops to express their grievances to the city authorities.
