The National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) has so far registered about 3,000 traders whose shops were destroyed by fire at the Odawna Market.
The registration exercise, which began on Saturday, November 21, involves the collection of the details of the affected traders, including the capital they would need to restart their businesses.
The Executive Director of NBSSI, Kosi Yankey-Ayeh, during a working visit to the Odawna market to assess the extent of damage caused by the recent fire outbreak, said the registration exercise is still ongoing.
She said the NBSSI was working with the Odawna Market Traders Association and the Korle Klottey Municipal Assembly to ensure that the funds were disbursed to victims of the disaster and not imposters.
“The NBSSI is frantically working to complete all the necessary profiling of the requests from the traders to be able to offer them some loan support,” she said.
“We started registering them, it is still ongoing; we want to get a good database and get to know the specific needs of the traders. We want to provide the right assistance to each and everyone that registers. Apart from that, the data would help in future planning to meet the needs of the market.
“So, we are carefully doing the registration and when we get the data we will quickly process and disburse the funds. Already, some of them are not having it easy, we would want to quickly provide them some relief. We are getting close to Christmas and it’s a big deal for them to make some money from the festive season,” Mrs Yankey-Aryeh told the media.
President Nana Akufo-Addo, during a visit to the market on Wednesday, November 18, 2020, directed the NBSSI to make available funds to support traders who had their wares destroyed by the fire.
President Akufo-Addo said the directive was to help the affected traders recover from their losses.
He also indicated that the government would undertake a re-wiring of all markets in the Greater Accra Region to forestall such tragic occurrences in the future.