Minister advises Nigerian traders not to leave Ghana

The Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has called on Nigerian traders who are facing tough times in Ghana not to leave the country.

Mr Aregbesola encouraged the traders to be patient with the government of Nigeria as it continues to engage the Ghanaian authorities and other relevant stakeholders with a view to addressing their challenges.

The minister gave the advice on Wednesday in his office in Abuja when he received a delegation of the Nigerian Traders Association in Ghana, an Affiliate of the Nigerian Traders Association, led by its National President, Ken Ukaoha.

Mr Aregbesola assured that the President Muhammadu Buhari-led Administration will continue to engage Ghanaian authorities to ensure that the challenges faced by Nigerians are amicably resolved.

He said that the Nigerian government is pained by the condition under which Nigerian traders in Ghana have been made to operate in recent times and thus, assured that government will not abandon them.

“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,” Aregbesola assured.

The ninister stressed that the Nigerian government is not resting on the matter but that it is doing everything possible to make life better for its citizens in Ghana and other countries of the world.

He urged the traders not to leave Ghana but rather contribute their own quota to the political development of that country, as the Nigerian Government will continue to engage relevant authorities to arrest the situation.

Earlier, the National President, Association of Nigerian Traders, Ken Ukaoha, 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.

He added that in spite of various interventions by representatives of the Nigerian government, nothing significant had been done by the Ghanaian government to reverse the trend.

Mr Ukaoha who further expressed the frustrations of many Nigerians, who are doing business in Ghana, noted that about 753 citizens of Nigeria are ready to leave Ghana.

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

He, therefore, appealed to the federal government and ECOWAS to take urgent steps against the Ghanaian Government to assuage the sufferings of the Nigerian traders in that country.