Moses Ofodeme
Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola, has advised Nigerian traders in Ghana against leaving the country over the imposition of a $1million levy on them by the Ghanaian government.
Aregbesola made this appeal on Tuesday, November 10, in Abuja when a delegation of Nigerian Traders Association in Ghana, an Affiliate of the Nigerian Traders Association, visited him.
The Minister urged them to be patient with the Federal Government; which he said was engaging with the Ghanaian authorities; as well as 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.
The statement by the Minister explained 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.”
He also 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.”
Reacting, 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.
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.