Accra gets tough on hawkers.

01 Jul, 2009

The Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), or city council, has renewed its efforts to decongest city centre streets with the demolition of temporary wooden structures used by petty traders around Kwame Nkrumah Circle and outside the School of Law at Makola. Operations got underway late on 28 June amid protests from the hawkers, who said they had not been given enough time to evacuate the area. The demolitions were supervised by members of the Ghana national fire service and police force and representatives of the city council.

Petty traders have long been the target of the city council, which accuses them of compounding road and pedestrian traffic among other things. In late 2006 AMA cleared the area around Kwame Nkrumah Circle of hawkers before opening the Pedestrian Shopping Mall at nearby Odawna to provide a permanent