Traders In Buipe Call for Reconstruction of Only Market

Portions of Buipe market

Traders at Buipe in the Northern Region have passionately appealed to President John Dramani Mahama to turn attention to the deplorable Buipe Market and turn it into a state of art trading centre.

The Buipe Market which is the biggest market centre in the three Northern Regions attracts traders from Kumasi, Techiman, Dormaa, Berekum, Sunyani, Krachi, Bimbilla, Yendi, Salaga, Makango, Tamale, Wa, Bolgatanga, Bawku and almost all the regions of Ghana. It is also patronized by traders from the neighbouring Burkina Faso, Togo and Niger, who usually deal in cattle, goats, tomatoes and onion. 

However, the nature of the market leaves much to be desired especially during raining seasons. 

Speaking in separate interviews with Savannahnews in Buipe during a visit to the market, the traders expressed deepest disappointment at successive governments for unjustifiably neglecting the Buipe Market which they asserted had the potential to generate more revenue for the nation. 

One of the Market Leaders, Maame Blackie flanked by Madam Elizabeth Ansah and Madam Rabi (all fish sellers) expressed the confidence that when given the needed attention or facelift, the Buipe Market would inarguably rock shoulders with the Techiman market in terms of patronage and revenue generation. 

Buipe is the gateway to the three Northern Regions and the neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger and the market has become attractive to the traders from the neighbouring countries because it offers them the opportunity to transport goods to and from the southern part of Ghana through the Volta Lake.

The Buipe Market is strategically located between the main Kumasi-Burkina Faso trunk road and the Buipe Inland Port on the Black Volta.

It is also the main central point for all the fishing communities along the White and Black Volta lakes as well as those along the other major rivers and even those from the Coastal areas of Ghana to do business. Apart from the fish, the Market has the comparative advantage over the others, due to the large sale of cattle, goats, sheep and guinea fowls. 

The Buipe Market is also noted for the availability of large quantities of yams, groundnut, sorghum, soya bean, dawadawa, okra, pepper, tomatoes, watermelon and a host of other crops, fruits and vegetables. The market also witnesses the display of different types of farm inputs, cooking utensils, electrical appliances, clothing, clothes, and any other items that are useful in the homes. 

Nonetheless, Maame Blackie and her group bewailed the extremely poor state of the market which had forced most of the traders dealing in tomatoes, pepper, onion, garden eggs, oranges, carrots, groundnut paste, palm oil and so many other perishable and delicate items to openly display items on the muddy ground.

They indicated that the Assembly had also failed upon several appeals to properly control the movement of Cargo trucks and passenger vehicles who load or offload their goods in the market. In most cases, the vehicles, they said end up splashing muddy waters onto the buyers, traders and their items. 

The traders complained why government through the District assembly had been collecting taxes from them on daily basis and yet very little or nothing had been done to improve the state of the market. 

They asserted that, most of the traders were in the fish business through loans from Banks and other micro-finance companies, but the state of the market always put them at a loss since they could not sell whenever there was little or heavy rains. 

“During dry seasons too, all the muddy areas also turn very dusty so we have to battle with the scorching sun and dust because vehicles also pass through the market. We don’t even have stores in the market, so as you (referring to this reporter) can see anytime it is raining or whenever we close from the market we have to convey all our fishes to our homes. Some of us come from far communities, and supposing you have 30 or 50 baskets of dry fish and you are to pack all of them during rains, definitely you will lose most of them to the rain”.

The frustrated traders lamented that because of the high losses, majority of the women had run out of the market because they could not pay their creditors, who always threaten to seize their goods or drag them to court. 

Buipewura

The Paramount Chief of Buipe Traditional Area, Buipewura Mahama Jinapor II in an interview at his palace was even more passionate in his remarks, blaming successive governments of playing politics with the market. 

He was disappointed about the absence of places of convenience, refuse containers and drainage systems in the market and the Buipe town in general. Both males and female traders face each other to defecate and urinate in open spaces and nearby bushes. 

Meanwhile, Buipe is the leading commercial hub of the Northern Sector, as businesses continue to locate to the area. One of the largest cement producing companies in Ghana, Savannah Cement Company Limited (SAVACEM) is located in Buipe. 

The area also serves as the transit point for the offloading and distribution of petroleum products to the Northern Sector, cement from the Ghana Cement Company (GHACEM), Volta Cement Company (Diamond Cement) and other metal and aluminum companies to supply to the north through the Buipe Port.

Almost all the cargo trucks that ply from the neighbouring countries to the southern part of Ghana also use Buipe as their resting place for days before continuing their journeys.

The Paramount Chief ardently called on the ruling government to construct the Buipe Market Centre into a modern business or commercial centre with stores, walkways, car parks, sanitation facilities, slaughter houses, and fridges for the fishermen to store their excess fishes among others.

The Assemblyman for Buipe Electoral Area, Hon Mahama Yussif in reaction to the revenue misappropriation claims by the traders, said that he fully shared the same sentiments with the traders, especially at this time of the rains. 

However, he indicated that the nature and the size of the Buipe market was far beyond the capacity of the District Assembly alone and thus added his voice to the call for the massive construction of the market.