There has been brief relief for onion sellers as all Ghanaian trucks in troubled Niger have made safe travel back home after being stranded on the Benin border for weeks.
Stranded traders at the Benin border on August 9 issued an appeal to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, urging his intervention for the prompt release of approximately 70 trucks carrying onions from Niger to Ghana via Benin.
The spokesperson for the onion sellers, Yakubu Apendiba on Eyewitness News on Citi FM, disclosed that the remaining stranded trucks numbering about 55 made it through the border after the Ghanaian ambassador intervened.
“The Ghana ambassador to Benin went there and spoke to the patrol, and they opened it for just two hours and closed it again and this is affecting our business because the onions are rotten.
“About 55 cars have come within the last three days all being forty-footer trucks and all went bad, and so we are now doing the local ones and getting it from Nigeria, but that one doesn’t last.”
He also disclosed that the price of a bag of onion has reduced following the arrival of the trucks.
“As we started going to Nigeria to bring the Nigeria one, the price has gone down a little bit. We were selling a bag last week for between GH¢1,600 and GH¢1,500, but now we are selling a bag between GH¢1,300 and GH¢1,200.”
“Sourcing from Niger is expensive compared to the one that we buy from Nigeria because if you go to buy in Niger, you will not get any place to pass and come to Ghana. All our cars in Niger have all come back to Ghana and nobody is there, and the onions have all rotten.”
Source: citinewsroom