Monday, 24th March, 2025
Hon Kofi Obiri Yeboah
Subin
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for this opportunity.
Mr Speaker, with a heavy heart, I rise to draw the attention of this august House to the tragic fire outbreak that ravaged Adum, the Central Business District and the vibrant commercial hub of Kumasi located in Subin, my Constituency, on the dawn of Friday, 21st March, 2025.
Mr Speaker, countless shops were engulfed by the raging flames, reducing decades of hard work, sweat, and lifelong investments of our traders and business people to ashes. The scene was heart-breaking as men and women risked their lives through the inferno to salvage what they could as the fire consumed everything they had laboured for. Properties and goods estimated into millions of Ghana cedis have been lost, plunging many families into unbearable despair, without an iota of hope.
Mr Speaker, I visited the scene of the disaster to ascertain the extent of the damage and what I witnessed was heart wrenching – lifetime investments reduced to rubble. According to the Ghana National Fire Service, the gravity of the Adum fire disaster is, by far, the worst witnessed in Ghana in several decades. Almost 2,000 shops and uncountable goods were gutted by the fire. In my interactions with affected traders and eyewitnesses, it was revealed that this fire was allegedly triggered by dumsor. Power had been out, and the moment electricity was restored, it sparked and triggered the fire.
Mr Speaker, this is most unfortunate in view of how far we have come as a nation. The reports further indicate that the Ghana National Fire Service was handicapped in their attempts to salvage the situation due to non-existent functional fire tenders at nearby stations – a major logistical issue that must be addressed. The congested nature of the market and lack of modern fire-fighting infrastructure worsened the situation, making it almost impossible for firefighters to contain the situation in time.
Mr Speaker, the growing trend of fire outbreaks in our major markets in recent years has become quite alarming: from Makola to Kantamanto, Asafo Market to Kejetia Market, and now Adum. Such disasters continue to deprive many people of their livelihoods and cost the nation billions of cedis.
Mr Speaker, this nation cannot continue to be negligent when it comes to enforcing standards and ensuring the safety of our markets. The architecture of these market areas leaves much to be desired. As law makers, we have a constitutional duty to push for stricter laws, improve on urban planning, and enhance market architecture to prevent such occurrences in the future.
Mr Speaker, I passionately appeal to the Government, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), and all relevant stakeholders, including the international community, to as a matter of urgency, come to the aid of these affected Ghanaians to support them rebuild their lives.
Mr Speaker, I believe that this tragedy must ignite a national dialogue on market safety and sustainable business practices. I strongly call on Government to prioritise the reconstruction of our markets with focus on safety and modernisation such as proper layouts, accessible routes, fire hydrants, and modern warning fire detection systems.
Mr Speaker, the Ghana National Fire Service must be retooled with advanced firefighting equipment, including drones and helicopters. More importantly, I urge the Government to introduce conscious policies that will support the informal sector to access insurance packages. This would ensure that, in the event of such unforeseen disasters, our traders and businesses would have adequate opportunities to bounce back on their feet. Insurance can no longer be seen as a luxury; it must be made a necessity to safeguard the livelihoods of our traders and sustain our local economy.
Mr Speaker, the affected traders are devasted, and, without hope now, as a Member of Parliament whose jurisdiction this disaster occurred, I intend to set up an endowment fund to support the victims.
In conclusion, I extend my deepest sympathies to all those affected by this disaster, and once again, plead with the Government, this august House, and all stakeholders and international community to treat this matter with the urgency it deserves. Indeed, and in fact, it is a national disaster.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, I am most grateful, and Subin is grateful.
Hon Eric Edem Agbana
Ketu North
Mr Speaker, I am guided by Order 93(5) and I want to make a brief comment on the Statement presented by the Member of Parliament for Subin Constituency.
Mr Speaker, I want to express my sympathies to all the victims of the Adum Market fire disaster that happened a couple of days ago. Indeed, like the maker of the Statement rightly stated, it has become a worrying trend that in recent years, we have seen many markets being ravaged by fire disasters, and it is important for us to take some actions to prevent the reoccurrence of the same in other markets. But while stating this, I would want to humbly state that issues of disasters are very sensitive, and they are issues that we must as much as possible do away with partisanship while dealing with it. And that is why I personally was not too pleased when even before an investigative report is out, the conclusion out there as the maker of the Statement sought to create or paint is that it was caused by electricity or dumsor as they are trying to say. I think it is important for us to wait for the authorities to come out with a report. Let us find out what really caused the incident while we address the challenges.
While at this, I wish to commend the Government for the swift response to the incident in Adum. I have seen videos of how the Ashanti Regional Minister, the young and enterprising Ashanti Regional Minister, the Hon Dr Frank Amoakohene and his team were in the thick of affairs, even at midnight trying to ensure that the market disaster was brought under control.
Beyond that, the Regional Minister and his team, in less than 24 hours, raised over GH₵600,000 to support the traders who were affected. And as I speak, many other efforts have been made to raise more to support. The President, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, also delegated his Counsel, the Director of Legal Affairs at the Presidency and the CEO of MASLOC; they were all at the scene trying to show sympathy and to express support to the victims of the fire incident.
I want to plead with all of us that when some of these things happen, we put away the partisanship because when a disaster like that strikes, the fire does not discriminate and affect only people that belong to a particular political party; everybody is affected. And so, let us put away the partisanship and approach this issue in a way that all of us can address the issue and find a lasting solution to it.
I wish to commend the President, the Minister, and everybody who is playing a role to ensure that the women whose items and shelves got destroyed are restored back to their normal position and the support that has been extended to them.
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
Hon Samuel Awuku
Akuapim North
Mr Speaker, thank you. I also rise, standing on Order 93(5) to contribute to the Statement made by the venerable MP for Subin.
Mr Speaker, I would like to also take consolation in the Book of Ecclesiastes which states that no one can anticipate the time of disaster, like a fish caught in a crab net or a bird caught in a wicked trap, so are humans caught at a time of calamity when it suddenly falls upon them.
Mr Speaker, what happened in Adum is not only tragic, but it also marks our piety as a nation. Unfortunately, what the people do need now will not be just solidarity messages or just visits to the place.
Mr Speaker, within the last three months, we have had many markets such as Kwadaso, Kantamanto, and all other places across the country. And when these incidents happen, we normally will have the first one-week with people giving solidarity messages and all. But people have lost their livelihoods.
The Adum matter is not just a matter of us expressing sympathies. People have lost whatever they have built for years and for decades. If I listen to the Hon Member of Parliament for the area, it is much more important that we also take that into consideration, that these recent power outages, if it is not something that we nib in the bud, it can happen in my constituency.
Mr Speaker, I am not predicting or prophesying, but it can also happen in Fomena Constituency. It is about time that we got a very concrete position and answers that we can take to our people. Clearly, one can see that when it happened in Accra, they said a committee had been set up to give these people some support—micro support and up to date— If one goes for the records, less than a tenth of the people might have received those supports — an intended support.
Now, we have Adum on our hands. Not too long ago, we had other places. What are we doing as a people to also help correct some of these structural issues? If we are talking about electricity or the power outages being one of the critical issues, especially in this fire. I am worried; I am worried that the more we make such issues—
That political football, we will praise the Government; praise President Mahama because he visited the people. It is a short space. He lives and what happens? I saw a video of the Ashanti Regional Minister, Mr Speaker, shouting at firefighters and then telling them that they should have brought a fire tender containing water and all. Mr Speaker, these war tricks will not solve the problem of the day.
The earlier reports of some of these incidents, what happened to them? How did we deal with the structural issues that came up? And how are we taking steps to ensure that other markets are also not affected? Very soon, we will also be approaching the dry season after this rainy season, and we are likely going to face some of these issues.
Mr Speaker, I want to plead with your good self and your good office that Parliament also takes very concrete steps and haul the appropriate Ministers before Parliament so that we get to know what we are doing to ensure that we do not have such issues recurring. And to those who have been affected, what is being done for them? I believe that just solidarity messages will not be enough.
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
Hon Nikyema Billa Alamzy
Chiana-Paga
Thank you, Mr Speaker.
The fire outbreaks are now becoming unbearable, and I think it is very pathetic. But all that I am seeing, the commentaries that we are giving here is about the blame game, which is not fair.
Mr Speaker, we are talking about businesses here. I would urge that we brainstorm, sit and figure out what the way out would be. The politics in our markets concerning fire is now too much. Let us put the politics aside and come out with a concrete solution, so that it would help our women and traders over there. I think we need to educate and reeducate our traders on factors that can cause fire in the markets. Secondly, sometimes one goes to some of the stores the in the market and there no fire extinguishers. Some women are there cooking; they are doing all sorts of things in the markets. We should be concerned about that. It is not a blame game, where we have to talk about dumsor or not dumsor.
We all know what is happening. The politics is too much. That is how the fire in the Kantamanto market came about and today is it that of the Adum market. Tomorrow, it may happen at the Paga market. Let us put aside all the politics and face it. We need to tell our traders in the market that at least they should fix—Or we should assist them to fix fire alarms. When there is fire and there is a beep, at least they can contain it. The major factor here is that there is no access to our markets. When there is fire, the fire tender cannot even enter the market and that is what we should be concerned about, making sure that we create access. But here is the case that we all want to win power. Who would go there and create that access and pull down somebody’s store so that they would not be voted for next time? I urge all of us as a House to hold the bull by the horn and make sure that we do whatever that is necessary for our markets to prevent future events of this nature.
Thank you very much.
Hon Zuwera Mohammed Ibrahimah
Salaga South
Mr Speaker, thank you for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement made by our Colleague, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Subin.
Mr Speaker, the Statement seeks to highlight the issue that occurred a few days ago at Adum in Kumasi, where the market literally got burnt. It is indeed very unfortunate, that these situations keep recurring. Very often, we are quick to try to find someone to blame for circumstances that we create ourselves. If as a people, we do not learn to take responsibility for our actions, I am afraid that we would go around this, it will become recurrent and at every turn, a Statement would be written and read for us to make contributions. Those who decide to politicise it would do so. But I insist that the issues of fire outbreaks and burnt markets can never and should never be politicised. It is offensive and it is an abuse of the sensibilities of the women who sit in the market. All of us go to the market.
Mr Speaker, as you indicated, the market is the arena for women. We are either selling, trading or buying. So, at all times, markets in this country are businesses for women. At a time like this, I want us to hear voices of people advocating for modernisation of the markets that we have. Modernisation of these markets will keep the women and their goods safe. But when we do not do that and we are quick to go back to the structures—Some of these structures existed before independence. They will either pull a wire from here and connect it there, so that they can also have power in their stores; we cannot blame anybody.
As a people, what are we doing to look at the market that takes—The last population census held in this country, in 2021, pegged women at over 51 per cent in this country. Let us assume half of these women are trading in the markets. That is an area that policy makers need to focus and modernise these markets so that the women and children who go there will be safe.
Mr Speaker, we have seen some attempts where governments come and pick up some markets and re-design and re-modernise those places. But what happens to the traditional owners of the stores and stalls in these markets? Oftentimes, when this socalled rehabilitation or reorganisation or whatever is finished, the original owners of the shops are found wanting because it becomes so easy for politicians, office bearers and public office holders to get in and take over these shops and stores for their friends and cronies, short-changing the original owners of the shops.
Mr Speaker, that might be one of the reasons they would not be so inclined to want modernisation of their facilities because they end up losing out. Can we agree as a country that this is what they also have to do?
That when they vote us into public office, we have a duty to protect their interests and to protect their properties and spaces. We do not get into office to take over what they owned, and in many instances, used to take care of us as we went to school.
Mr Speaker, I add my voice to this Statement, and I urge the city authorities in Kumasi, the Kumasi Metropolitan Authority, to take a second look at these facilities. They must also look at what we can do to bring them to speed, make them a place where everybody wants to go to, and make them a place where our mothers, who go there every day, are safe to engage in their marketing and trading activities.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
Hon Kingsley Nyarko
Kwadaso
Mr Speaker, you are a good man. Thank you for the opportunity.
Mr Speaker, what happened at Adum on the dawn of Friday, was a national disaster. I am sure by this time, all of us should be mourning. I want to commend the maker of the Statement, the Hon Member for Subin, for this troubling, worrying, and melancholic Statement. Mr Speaker, what has befallen our brothers and sisters, especially our mothers, who ply their trade at Adum, is so sad and I wish that it did not happen.
Mr Speaker, livelihoods have been lost; investments of persons have gone down the drain. I think that we need to be in the shoes of all such persons. At this moment, we cannot only wish them godspeed. What we have to do is that the Government must put in interventions and measures to ensure that what happened there does not happen again; and also, seek the welfare and resettlement of those persons who were affected.
Mr Speaker, what we have heard from the scene of the incident was that this sad spectacle was triggered by erratic power supply. We are being told, allegedly, that it was a result of erratic power supply, what we refer to as dumsor. And we are asking, Mr Speaker, before investigations are done to unravel the actual cause—This is what we are hearing.
Mr Speaker, it is also true that the President — Mr Speaker, the maker of this Statement made a beautiful Statement, and I am making comments on that. I have not violated any Rules of this House, so I will indulge my respected Majority Chief Whip to give me the space to make my point, with all due respect. Can Hon Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor please let me make me point? Mr Speaker, in January this year, on two different occasions in my Constituency, the Kwadaso Wood Market suffered the same fate.
Mr Speaker, thanks for allowing me to proceed. I will not take the path of Hon Dafeamekpor; I will take the path that does not infringe on our rules of engagement in this House.
Mr Speaker, for me, it has become one-too-many. The spate of fire outbreaks in the country, and especially in the region—It has happened on two occasions in my Constituency. The day that it happened at Adum, it also happened at Ahenema Kokobin. How long can we sit and allow this to fester and wreak havoc in our societies and also in our lives? We need to find a lasting solution to this. I am told that the President was there.
Mr Speaker, for the record, the President had a programme at Nkawie, celebrating the World Reforestation Day. He was there; he did not move from Accra to Kumasi. So, he went there. We do not have any issues about that, but we should not make capital out of this. Mr Speaker, if he had moved from Accra to Kumasi, that would have been different from when he was at Nkawie and he went there— [Uproar] Rockson-Nelson Dafeamekpor, why do you do that?
Mr Speaker, I want to plead that looking at the enormity of the havoc caused, and since we have not exhausted deliberation or commentary on the Budget and since the Appropriation Bill has not been passed, I plead with your good self, the Minister for Finance, and even the President, that provisions be made in the Budget to deal with what has happened at Adum. I am sure this is not out of place for the Government to do. If we all agree—
Mr Speaker, you remember on Friday, I raised this issue on the Floor and I even pleaded that the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs be brought to the House to, at least, the House said that he would not bring him here. If we all agree that this is a national disaster, the Minister should have been here to inform us. Also, about the way forward, we can do something to help our brothers and sisters who have fallen victim to this. I plead with all of us to support this call by making budgetary allocation to help them to come back to their rightful selves and live a better and a meaningful life, so that they can effectively function in our society.
Mr Speaker, on that score, I want to thank you for this treasured space you have given me, but we must do more. In some jurisdictions, in California, when one hears of fire outbreaks, it happens mostly in the farms and bushes, but in this country, fire outbreaks mostly happen in our markets. There is something wrong about that and we must go into it and deal with it once and for all.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the space and I thank Hon Dafeamekpor for his interjections. apprise us of what happened, measures he wants to put in place to ensure that the victims are catered for, and that it does not happen again. The Leader of the House said that he would not bring him here. If we all agree that this is a national disaster, the Minister should have been here to inform us. Also, about the way forward, we can do something to help our brothers and sisters who have fallen victim to this. I plead with all of us to support this call by making budgetary allocation to help them to come back to their rightful selves and live a better and a meaningful life, so that they can effectively function in our society.
Mr Speaker, on that score, I want to thank you for this treasured space you have given me, but we must do more. In some jurisdictions, in California, when one hears of fire outbreaks, it happens mostly in the farms and bushes, but in this country, fire outbreaks mostly happen in our markets. There is something wrong about that and we must go into it and deal with it once and for all.
Mr Speaker, thank you for the space and I thank Hon Dafeamekpor for his interjections.
Hon Jean-Marie Formadi
Biakoye
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to comment on the Statement concerning the fire outbreaks in the country.
Mr Speaker, this is a very serious disaster that we must all think about as a nation. Our women are the majority in the market, as our sister said earlier, and this is something that I am so much surprised as to why we should be quick in determining the cause of the fire outbreak when there is no report to that effect. This made me think that our people on the other Side may be behind these fire outbreaks because of being quick in responding to the cause of the fire.
Mr Speaker, we are in this country and everybody knows that His Excellency John Dramani Mahama is a man who is interested in building markets for our women and Ghanaians. So, there is no way one will stand somewhere and say that the cause of this fire outbreak is due to dumsor. The dumsor that we are all experiencing now is dumsor that has been inherited from the past Government. Mr Speaker, and this is dumsor that the current Government is working hard to solve.
Mr Speaker, so, I will say the time has come where we have to look at our institutions that work seriously on monitoring, especially, the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG). This is the time I think ECG should go around our markets and all other places that we have electrical issues to check on the connections that are there, because some of the connections that are in the markets are illegal. The cause of fire outbreaks can be connected with a lot of issues. So, we plead with the ECG to take their monitoring seriously, and I, also, plead with our local authorities in the Ashanti Region and everywhere to go round the markets and check all activities that go on in the markets. This is because we have people who sell food in the markets and they use fire; we have people who do all other things that generate fire. So, I will say Mr Speaker, thank you very much.
Mr Speaker, I did not say the people of Ashanti Region are doing illegal connections. I said a lot of things cause fire in so many places, including our markets; one can be illegal connections—One can be illegal connections and another is bare fire that we leave in the markets. Those who cook in the markets, and a lot of things can cause fire outbreaks. So, the activities that happen in the markets must also be checked. That was what I said.
Mr Speaker, I would continue by saying that our women in the markets should be very careful with the activities that go on there. We should check all the things that we use in the markets, so we do not leave them on..
Mr Speaker, the Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Microfinance and Small Loans Centre (MASLOC) have supported the victims with GH₵100,000, which I think will add up to what the Regional Minister has also contributed to the market women. It would not solve all their problems, but we are pleading with other donors and well-wishers to come on board and support the vulnerable ones in the market. We have men in the market too, but the women are more. That is why we seem to be concentrating on the women, not that we are leaving the men out. So, we plead with everybody out there to come on board and support the Government in supporting our women in the market.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity.
Hon Kwabena Okyere Darko-Mensah
Takoradi
Mr Speaker, I am so happy this issue has come up in this House again. Not long ago, we talked about bushfires, and now we are talking about market fires.
Mr Speaker, the maker of the Statement made it very clear that he believes that this strategy must ignite a national dialogue on market safety and sustainable business practices. And I think that is the core of the matter because if we take the way fires are engulfing this country in the last three months that President John Mahama took over, it is becoming a blot on his governance, and I believe that it is time that the issues that have been raised on both Sides of the House are discussed properly, and then solutions found for them.
Mr Speaker, before I go on, I would like to express my sympathy to all those who have lost their products or services and their assets in the market.
In fact, if you take the work that is being done by the Regional Minister in trying to raise funding, you can realise that it is peanuts. That also calls on us as a country to start looking at raising regional development funds for Regional Ministers across the length and breadth of the country. Sometimes when some of these things happen, financing to even take care of the initial problems becomes a major difficulty. Going forward, Mr Speaker, I believe that the women also need a lot of funding to do their businesses, and I believe that this country will have to find new ways or emergency funds immediately for them and for all the markets that have been burnt, so that their activities can be resuscitated and reactivated for them to live their lives.
Mr Speaker, one of the issues that confronts me sometimes is that if you take the National Democratic Congress (NDC) current Budget that has been presented to Parliament, one way of raising money is to charge taxes on the insurance that people are buying, and the category of insurance that markets can be covered includes these particular taxes, and I believe that Government will have to take a second look at removing it. So, that people will be energised to take insurance for their shops, so when some of these calamities happen, the insurance companies can quickly come in to support it because if you even take the California issue that happened, with time, the insurance companies were running away.
It was so enormous that they could not support it. So, I believe that it is better we take these taxes out, so that market women and shop owners can use that money to even buy their own fire extinguishers for all the shops. If all the 2000 shops had fire extinguishers and this issue had happened and they had them that could have been the first line of defence, against the fire spreading across the length and breadth of the market, as has happened at Adum. So, I believe that this is one thing that we need to look at.
I remember along the line, even for my own market, the Takoradi Central Market, I had to buy a lot of fire extinguishers for them, and they always used this as the first line of defence when fires started anywhere near them. I believe that this is something that we need to encourage across the length and breadth of this country to make sure that we are able to do so. Secondly, a lot of our markets are old, so under the last regime, we were trying to rebuild a lot of these markets.
Mr Speaker, since President Mahama has been able to go to this market in particular, I believe that all the projects that we started under the market programme should be continued, and completed because, after all, if you look at the amount of money that has been raised from Minerals Income and Investment Fund, (MIIF) which has been the savings done by Akufo-Addo Government, and President Mahama is moving them to the Big Push, he should be able to use some of this monies to support the development of our markets. And for the markets that are old, we can also modernise them. At least, if we can even put in water sprinklers in all these markets, any time there is a trigger of fire, we can open them up, and then they can be another second line of defence for these markets.
Mr Speaker, taking cognisance of the fact that a lot of our Members have been talking about these fires, how they create problems in this country, how they take away people’s capital from them, I believe that it is time that, Mr Speaker, you give consequential directives so that the Committee on Defence and Interior of this Parliament can look at the reports of all fire outbreaks in this country, especially those concerning markets, for us to determine a the way forward in solving these problems once and for all. Because the last time it happened, all the young men on TikTok were complaining that it was dumsor; another time, people were complaining that it is illegal connection, and another time, people were complaining that the cooking of food in the markets created the problem.
I believe that if you are able to give this directive, we would be able to put and have a comprehensive report, that can show us in the right direction; then we can put in the necessary steps to implement them, so that we do not have to suffer this fate again as a country because the fires are becoming too much. In the last three months, I believe that President Mahama is having the biggest bash of his Government for seemingly allowing fires to destroy the businesses of our mothers in all the markets in this country.
With these few words, Mr Speaker, I thank you very much for the opportunity to add my voice to the matter. Thank you
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