Kejabil Market Begs For Help

By Agnes Ansah, GIJ

Before the clock ticked 5:00 a.m. at Kejabil, a farming community in the Ahanta West District, one could hear the tramping of feet, which eventually wakes people up.

It is morning already, and everyone is briskly heading to the market.

Before the first rays of the morning sun, the market is already humming with activity, with streams of buyers rushing to get fresh food items, and the market women yelling at the top of their voices to catch the attention of prospective buyers.

Both buyers and sellers wear two faces – a bright face for a good sell, or a sullen face for a bad one. This is always so on market and even normal days at the Kejabil market.

The market, though constructed in the 21^st Century, does not match modern standards and is the only one serving the entire community, with a population of about 1,000.

A portion of the wood built market is on the verge of collapse, while the other portion stands strongly on its feet, neatly constructed with concrete.

From where I stood, I could see one obvious thing -holes in the roof of the old market which shows that there would be a problem should the rains set in.

The market has been divided into sections – fishmongers are at one end, the pepper, tomato sellers et al at another, as well as the fomfom (a food made from corn dough) sellers at the other section.

Until an interview with these market women, I had thought everything was well, not knowing that behind these bright faces lay a problem.

Whenever the rain sets in, marketing would have to be suspended until it eventually stops.

Those at the receiving end of the rain have always been the fomfom sellers, as they would have to seek shelter at the well constructed part of the market. This is because, the roof where they sell leaks badly.

“We always have to suspend marketing and seek shelter elsewhere whenever the rains set in,” one of the victim fomfom sellers said gruffly.

The move to seek shelter sometimes results in rivalry, since the place becomes crowded.

Some things that were obviously lacking in the market were basic facilities such as a urinal and toilet facility.

As a result of the absence of these facilities an uncompleted building nearby has been turned into urinal and defecation grounds by the market women.

Before the sun slants to the west, every activity comes to a halt, since there is no provision of electricity at the market, a woman retorted. “But, this is not a night market,” asked this reporter.

“Well some of us would like to stay till 6:00 p.m., but can’t do so, due to the absence of light. We are unable to come to the market early as some of our colleagues in other towns do,” she added.

Another woman, who gave her name as Ekua Yaaba, who spoke to this file, however lamented about their inability to access loans to aid them in their trading businesses.

That, she observed, had led to slow business activities.

Interestingly, considering the myriad of problems confronting the market women, the Assembly Member of the community believes there is no end in sight to addressing the problems.

This was because the District Assembly is not generating revenue from the market in order for it to consider addressing the problems.

For now, Assembly Member Raphael Ansah has suggested that the community find ways of generating its own money to address the problems confronting the Kejabil market.

That apart, he appealed to the District Assembly to consider addressing the problem.

Raphael Ansah he was not aware of some of the concerns the women raised, like the urinal issue, for instance, which has not been made known to him.

He is, therefore going to take the necessary steps to ensure its reconstruction.