Ghana

Nigeria's Buhari meets Nana Addo over retail feud between Ghana and Nigerian traders

Sunday, May 30, 2021 at 11:58 AM by Nii Ayi Ayitey

- Nigerian leaders will meet President Akufo-Addo in a meeting over retail feud

- Both countries have endured over 20 years of retail feud in Ghana

- Ghana forbids foreigners from venturing into retail trade but Nigerian authorities disagree

President Akufo-Addo is expected to meet Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, in an extraordinary ECOWAS meeting in Accra on Monday, May 31.

Yen News has gathered that both leaders will, once again, have a frank and closed-door emergency meeting over the protracted retail feud between Nigerian and Ghanaian traders.

Nigeria's Buhari meets Nana Addo over retail feud between Ghana and Nigerian traders (Photos: Getty Images/ modified by writer)
Source: UGC

Ghana’s retail laws, under the GIPC Act does not permit for foreigners – including Nigerians – to take up trading activities along retail markets in Accra.

In fact, foreigners who wish to explore retail trade will have to invest 1 million dollars and employ up to ten Ghanaian before given a license to operate.

But this has not been the case with Nigerian retailers in the country. A recent swoop by a taskforce established by President Akufo-Addo through the Ministry of Trade and the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), has so far seen over 200 shops belonging to undocumented Nigerian retailers shut.

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US businessman in Ghana petitions US Congress to investigate Rawlings' death

This protracted feud between both countries has lasted for almost 25 years. President of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA), Dr. Joseph Obeng, has described the presence of these foreign retailers as “a blight on Ghana’s supreme independence”.

In other news

An American businessman and Managing Director of Plant Oil Powered (POP) Diesel, Claude Convisser, has petitioned the US Congress to investigate the activities of both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)in Ghana.

In the petition, the US citizen detailed a series of allegations against the two American intelligence services, including the murder of Ex-President Rawlings, and plans to instigate terrorist attacks and destabilize the country.

The petition also called on the US Congress to investigate what the petitioner called "a systematic and regular practice of bribe - demanding in President Akufo Addo's Flagstaff House".

The American investor who has lived in Ghana for seven years now, said the CIA meddled in the 2020 elections in favour of the NPP and subsequently murdered the former President, J.J Rawlings in order to quash any opposition against the US Ghana Defense Treaty, which the former President had criticized as a surrender of the country's sovereignty.