The Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) has refuted reports that it will spearhead the closure of foreign-owned retail shops at Abossey Okai on Monday, September 8, 2025.
The clarification follows earlier claims by Takyi Addo, Director of Communications for the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association, that the group would enforce provisions of the Ghana Investment Promotion Act (Act 865), which reserves retail trade for Ghanaian citizens.
GUTA Vice President, Clement Boateng, dismissed the reports as inaccurate. “Nowhere has GUTA said they are going to embark on closure of shops on Monday,” he stressed.
Boateng, however, acknowledged that President John Dramani Mahama’s recent announcement in Japan about plans to review the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act 2013 (Act 865) had unsettled members.
Some traders interpreted the comments as a move to abolish the $1 million minimum capital requirement for foreign investment in retail trade.
He revealed that GUTA sought clarification from GIPC CEO, Simon Madjie, who assured them that the proposed reforms would not affect retail trade.
Instead, the changes would apply only to more technical and capital-intensive sectors such as manufacturing, mining, information technology, and artificial intelligence.
“Apparently what the president said has nothing to do with trading,” Boateng explained. “We still uphold the requirement in the trading sector, so we have calmed our nerves.”
The assurance, he added, has eased tension among traders who had feared that the removal of capital requirements could open the retail space to foreign dominance at the expense of Ghanaian businesses.
