…At Lapaz’s booming evening market
By Esther Adjei FRIMPONG
The Abeka-Lapaz area is fast becoming the busiest community in the Greater Accra Region with scores of hawkers creating all manner of artificial markets in the evening under the watchful eyes of city authorities.
As well, the Lapaz community is growing into a transport hub by helping passengers to travel from the area to their various communities in Accra and on the outskirts.
Business Day can report that on a normal day, the morning and afternoon hours feature fleets of commercial cars busy transporting people but during late the afternoon hours of about 4:00 PM eating into the evening, the situation dramatically changes.
On many several visits, Business Day observed market women, in particular, busy selling all manner of items ranging from bags, used clothes and shoes, cosmetics, phones and accessories, foodstuff, electronics, movies and many more.
Sometimes, as early as 3:00 PM, hawkers and market women begin mounting their stands to sell their stuff.
When such hours arrive, drivers experience a nightmare as they find it very difficult maneuvering their cars through the outer lanes.
Very often, some of the sellers blatantly mount their stands onto the roads thereby competing with the vehicles for space and on the pavements meant for walking.
Caught in the melee are all manner of buyers, office white collar workers, school children, passengers, among others.
Abena Agyemang, a shoe seller, tells Business Day that she sells there in the evening because she doesn’t have money to rent a shop. Besides, she can’t starve her children and herself; so, in order to survive she has to sell in the evening at Lapaz.
She enjoys bumper sales because her shoes are cheaper; bringing her lots of sales almost all the time.
She doesn’t sell in the morning because of the Accra Metropolitan task force but during the evenings they are not around to sack and seize the stuff, says Abena.
Seth Aidoo, a dress seller, goes to retailers in Accra to select some of the best dresses and come to Lapaz to sell. “The sales here are good in the evenings at Lapaz because a lot of people pass by in an attempt to catch a commercial vehicle. I left my village to come and make a living,” he said.
For Manuel De-Graft Johnson, who sells bags in a rented shop, the evening street market is taking a toll on his business. He told Business Day that business is quite okay just that during the evenings market is very bad because of the night sellers on the roadside.
Reacting to the situation at Lapaz area, Numo Blafo, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Accra Metropolitan Assembly, told Business Day that they are still working on that but the challenge they are facing is the hours they work.
He said the traders have taken advantage of the time the office closes, as civil workers of the Assembly work from 8:00AM to 5:00PM from Monday to Friday.
He pointed out that sacking traders from the pedestrian walk way is not only the duty of the AMA but also the duty of the Ghana Police Service.
