Don’t leave Ghana over $1m levy, Aregbesola counsels Nigerian traders

Nigerian traders in Ghana have been counselled against leaving the country over the imposition of a $1million levy on them by the Ghanaian government.

The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who gave the advice on Tuesday in Abuja when a delegation of Nigerian Traders Association in Ghana, an Affiliate of the Nigerian Traders Association, visited him, urged them to be patient with the Federal Government which he said was engaging with the Ghanaian authorities and other relevant stakeholders with a view to addressing their challenges.

The delegation was led by its National President, Dr Ken Ukaoha.

According to Aregbesola the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari would continue to engage the Ghanaian government to resolve the challenges faced by Nigerians in that country.

A statement by the spokesman of the Ministry of Interior, Mohammed Manga qouted the minister as saying that the Federal Government “is pained by the condition under which the traders have been made to operate in recent times.

“Your pains cannot endure, we will not abandon you; no stone is being left unturned to remove the pains you are passing through in Ghana.”

READ ALSO: Nigerians in Ghana cry out to Buhari, say we’re dying, our shops locked despite paying $1m levy

He stressed that the government was not sleeping on the matter but “doing everything possible to make life better for its citizens in Ghana and other countries of the world.”

Ukaoha, while speaking earlier, expressed what he referred to as the agony, humiliation and torture of Nigerian traders in Ghana, emanating from the Ghanaian government’s decision to raise the capital base of any foreign trader doing business in the country to $1million, and the subsequent locking up of many Nigerian traders’ shops since 2019.

According to him, despite various interventions by representatives of the FG, nothing significant had been done by the Ghanaian government to reverse the trend.

“If we react proportionately to the way we have been treated in Ghana, it might lead to a serious crisis,” he said.

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