The team interrogating an owner of a retail shop
By: Mudasiru Abdul Yakeen, Koforidua.
Some 39 retail shops owned by foreign nationals in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional Capital, have been served with a notice to regularise their documents within 14 days.
This was communicated to the shop owners on Tuesday, September 1, by a technical sub-committee on the committee of foreign retail trade made up of personnel from the Ghana Immigration Service, Ghana Revenue Authority, Ghana Standard Authority, Ghana Police Service, Customs and members of the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) on their documents verification exercise of foreign shops in the Eastern Region.
Operation
Out of 40 retail shops that were visited by the technical sub-committee, only one shop had all valid documents. The rest failed to produce documents demanded from them while some were operating with expired documents.
Notices were, therefore, posted in front of their shops to ensure they secure all the needed documents.
Edward Agyenim Boateng, leader of the technical sub-committee, told the media that the Eastern Regional exercise is quite distinctive from other regions visited since it is the first time such a major exercise is being conducted in the region.
“We are treating this exercise with maximum caution and strictness because this is the first time such a big exercise is happening in the Eastern Region. Hence we are giving the culprits who are foreigners in retail business 14 days ultimatum to secure all the needed documentation for retail business in the country. Failure to do so will merit a closure of their shops,” he said.
He assured that a heavy task force from the presidency will be deployed to clamp down on those who fail to secure all the needed documents required to operate a business in Ghana.
