Ato Kwamena Dadzie, a journalist who bills himself as "Ghana's most irreverent," has a great take on the effort by Alfred Vanderpuije, Accra's new mayor, to drive hawkers out of center of the city. Money quote:
Let’s face it. The central business district of Accra is a commercial centre. The whole area is one big market and like every market we should expect the area to be a congested beehive of economic activity. Most African markets are like that. We’ve lived with it for decades and it’s hard to see why the mayor wants to change it.
These hawkers are on the streets because they need to survive. Government should be looking for ways to help their small businesses thrive instead of hounding them with batons, destroying their stalls and breaking their wares.
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