Traders at the Kumasi Race-course have heaped praises on the Queen mother of Asanteman, Madam Afia Konadu for facilitating their activities at the famous marketing arena.
Speaking to the Ghanaian Observer newspaper Friday morning, Market Queen at the site, Madam Afia Kyeiwaah commended the mother of Asanteman for the show of care.
According to Madam Kyeiwaah, there are spaces for the traders who deal in each of the items sold at the market.
She noted that the only traders who previously did not have an avenue or space to display their items on a large scale were pepper traders.
She however revealed that the Asante Queen mother last week made provision for them.
“We are happy that our mother, the Asantehemaa and our Great King, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II have provided to us spaces to sell and do business and it is heartwarming to have gotten a spacious place for those who deal in pepper at this place”, Madam Kyeiwaa noted.
Madam Afia Kyeiwaah, Market Queen at Race course market arena
PEPPER TRADERS:
Speaking on behalf of their colleagues at the pepper selling arena, Nana Cynthia and Yaa Akyiaah, leaders of the Pepper Sellers Association thanked the Queen mother of Asanteman for the gesture of love.
They also commended the efforts of their market queen for leading the charge for them to get the spaces they now occupy.
The group however asked the Kumasi Metropolitan Assembly (KMA), the authority in charge of the place to properly prepare the ground floor for them.
The two women said the stones at the site and nature of the place makes it inconvenient to walk freely.
“We are happy with this place provided to us by Otumfuo and our mother but we plead with the KMA to put this place in good shape for us so that our activities would be done in a convenient environment “, the leaders appealed.
BACKGROUND:
The race-course market arena was an area carved out for traders who were relocated from the former Kejetia market terminal.
These traders were relocated to make way for the construction of the newly redeveloped Kejetia modern market.
The race-course land, a property of the Overlord of Asaneteman, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II was given to the KMA freely to resettle the Kejetia traders whose number was above 5, 000.
The market which shares a boundary with the Bantama community now has sheds for almost every item sold at the arena with vehicles from Burkina Faso travelling to offload and cart away large volumes of food to the neighbouring country.
Currently, the biggest challenge at race-course are the roads and routes in and around the arena which are in a deplorable state. t
