Deputy Chief Executive Officer in charge of Operations at the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA), Prof. Michael Ayamga-Adongo, has cautioned members of the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association to be mindful of their actions, warning that attempts to enforce investment laws on their own could trigger international retaliation.
Executives of the Association, on Monday, September 8, 2025, embarked on an exercise to enforce Section 27(1) of the Ghana Investment Promotion Centre (GIPC) Act, 2013 (Act 865), which prohibits non-citizens from engaging in petty trading, hawking, or selling goods in stalls and markets. The exercise resulted in a near-confrontation between some foreign traders and the executives.
Prof. Adongo stressed that the enforcement of such laws must be carried out by the appropriate authorities.
“It is the responsibility of law enforcement, the Ghana Immigration Services authority, also in collaboration with the relevant agencies, to monitor these things and regulate them. To the extent that other actors in the space take the law into their own hands and begin to enforce these things is problematic,” he said.
Prof. Adongo further warned that the Association’s actions could spark retaliatory measures against Ghanaians living abroad.
“Because then it may trigger reactions and responses from other jurisdictions where we also have Ghanaians who may not be doing what they are doing here. But the fact that they have heard that their citizens have come under certain forms of attack — it could trigger that kind of thing,” he explained.
Despite these concerns, the Abossey Okai Spare Parts Dealers Association has issued a three-day ultimatum to foreign traders in the hub, demanding that they shut down their shops or face further action.
