Mr Kwaku Kwarteng, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Obuasi East, has received applause for spearheading the efforts to revive the Kunka Market and Lorry Terminal, which had been inactive since its commissioning in January 2018.
The newly-constructed commercial hub, was funded with the Urban Development Grant under a Public Private Partnership (PPP) arrangement.
However, the facility has become a virtual ‘white elephant’ as it has been abandoned by prospective patrons, especially traders, who are citing poor condition of access road from the main road to the market and high rent cost of the stalls and stores.
As a result, community members and traders preferred to trade in front of their houses.
However, the MP, also a Deputy Finance Minister has led the stakeholder discussion, which has resulted in the formation of a Market Management Committee with the mandate to come out with modalities to address the fundamental cause of the problem.
The Committee would, among other things review the outstanding works at the market and engage the contractor on how best to fix these to make the facility fully functional.
This came to the fore at a town hall meeting held in Obuasi and attended by the MP to disseminate the findings of a social audit conducted on the Market.
Mr Kwarteng won the admiration of stakeholders for his immense contribution towards the revival of the market.
The meeting, attended by representatives of women groups, persons with disability, traditional authorities, heads of decentralized departments and the media, was also to brainstorm on how to make the market functional to serve its intended purpose.
It was organized by the Social Audit Committee (SAC), an independent citizen-based committee charged with the responsibility of evaluating the performance of public actors as well as Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana.
The initiative is a collaboration between the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development in collaboration with the Local Government Network (LOGNet), with funding from the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).
The audit was conducted by the Center for Local Governance Advocacy (CLGA) through the Social Support Foundation, its local partners.
