Traders at the Keta Market in the Volta Region are appealing to the authorities to reconstruct the facility into a modern market to enhance business operations.
They called for a facelift of almost all structures in the market, including the stalls, which they said must be reconstructed into two or three storeys.
Among the anxiliary facilities should be a clinic to provide emergency healthcare on market days, an educational centre, probably a crèche, to cater for the children, and modern washrooms.
The traders made the appeal in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) upon a visit to the market last week.
‘The Keta Market is one of the oldest markets in Ghana so it deserves to be better than its current form,’ one woman said.
Madam Rejoice Adzo, a former Assembly-member and Market Queen, appealed to the Government to restore the market to its past glory.
‘This market was a colonial market. People from Northern Volta, Togo, and Dzemeni used to come here to trade but it is not like that anymore. The
Government must help us to restore it to its former glory,’ she said.
Meanwhile, some drivers have also appealed for the renovation of the town roads, especially the one linking the market, complaining that its bad nature was impeding their work.
‘We suffer when bringing traders here on market days. So, we sometimes drop them off at Tayagagbor (quite a distance from the market) because the potholes are affecting our tires,’ a driver lamented.
The Keta Market is one of the oldest markets established in the Volta Region around the 15th Century, which attracted people from far and near to trade in fish, salt, and vegetables, being the major commodities produced in the area.
It has, however, deteriorated in recent times until the Keta Municipal Assembly renovated some sheds with its internally generated fund in 2021.
Source: Ghana News Agency
