Kumasi: ECG cuts power supply to New Kejetia Market over debt as traders use phone torchlight

There was total darkness at the New Kejetia Market in the Kumasi Metropolis of the Ashanti Region after the Electric Company of Ghana (ECG) cut power supply to the facility.

A trusted source at the market told this reporter that power was cut to the area on Wednesday, October 12, 2021 at about 11AM.

The situation has brought commercial activities to a standstill as the traders were not only plunged into total darkness but suffer heat as well.

Confirming to this reporter, the Public Relations Officer for ECG in the Ashanti Region, Erasmus Kyere Baidu said Kumasi City Markets Limited,(KCML), Managers of the facility owed ECG six months areas of light bills.

While Mr Baidu declined to tell this reporter the exact amount owed by the facility, a source at the market disclosed that KCML has defaulted in paying over GHC2million for the last six to seven months.

Erasmus Kyere Baidu noted that the disconnection is to cause ‘discomfort to the administration’ in a bit to get them pay the accumulated bills.

At the time this reporter visited the facility Wednesday afternoon, traders had switched on their mobile phone lights as they went about their daily routines.

Traders at the newly built Kejetia Market in June 2021 suspended payments of bills, service charges and other monthly tariffs in protest of failure on the part of management to provide meters to each shop owner.

Chairman for Petty Traders Association Nana Prempeh describes the power cut as worrying.

He called on the management to as a matter of urgency solve the problem as it poses security threat to the traders.