Lapaz hawkers return (5/8/09)

Hawkers at Lapaz in the Okaikwei North Constituency in Accra have returned to the pavements and the streets after the massive decongestion exercise that took place in the early hours of Saturday, August 1, 2009.
When the Daily Graphic got there at 10 a.m. on Monday, August 3, 2009, business was brisk despite that their structures — tables and kiosks — were demolished during the decongestion exercise.
The hawkers, such as mobile phone top-up credit vendors, cobblers, mobile phone sellers, food vendors and second-hand clothes dealers, were seen transacting business with their customers.
Ama Serwaa, second-hand clothes dealer, told the Daily Graphic that selling on the pavement was her only source of income, as a single parent of three children.
She said she had never been to school and had no educational background to secure any white-collar that would help her take care of herself, her mother in the village and the children.
She, therefore, appealed to the authorities to reconsider their decision of sacking them from the pavements.
A mobile phone top-up credit vendor, Kwesi Offei, said the pavements and the streets were the only places he could sell more credit credits and make huge profits.
That, he said, was because many people from the neighbouring communities, such as Tabora, Alhaji, Race Course and Tantra Hill, passed through Lapaz on their way to and from work or home.
He said it was not going to be easy getting the hawkers off the streets and the pavements since the kind of business had come to stay.
A food vendor, Cynthia Quarshie, said she would be happy if they were resettled at a better location, where their items would be patronised.
She said leaving their present location would mean that they would lose their numerous customers and would thus struggle to make ends meet.
Some pedestrians were, however, happy about the demolition of the unauthorised structures on the pavements.
Mr Moses Assimeng-Kwakye said pedestrians had to walk on the streets because the pavements were occupied with all kinds of structures and wares with their owners doing brisk business.
Also, he commended the authorities for undertaking the exercise, and said more needed to be done to permanently get the hawkers off the pavements.
Another resident, Mr Adolph Banks, also urged the government to put in a lot of effort to ensure that the hawkers did not return to the pavements.