By Dadson A. Musa
On the 3rd. February 2024, a meeting was held at the office of the minister the Importers Association met with the Transport and Aviation Ministe, Fanday Turay and Deputy Trade Minister, Fatmata Kargbo on the 3rd February 2024 to clarify the one-way traffic issue at Sani Abachi Street in Freetown. The main focus was ” to achieve a win-win situation between the Importers Association and government.” Discussions were candid as the issue at hand is burning. Shop owners at Abachi Street are now disadvantaged because they were not duly informed.” Initially it was agreed that a four- hour window from 11:00 am -3:00pm every day be agreed.
“After more than three hours of discussions we were able to arrive at the following outcomes: a four hour window (11:00am – 3:00pm) allocated for uploading and offloading of goods using light vans, no vehicle should be parked at Abacha Street for the whole of the day, etc. in a nutshell we want to send a big thank you to all who participated and. special thanks to the Deputy Min. Trade Mrs. Fatmata Kargbo, Min. of Transport and Aviation, Mr. Fanday Turay, his able Director Mr. Hindolo Shiaka and team”, said Paul Timmy, Secretary General of the Sierra Leone Importers Association
Speaking to this medium, the President of the Importers Association, Alhaji Mohamed Wurie Sow said they ” were not involved in the initial plans.” And therefore, has issues with it because now his own business is affected as vehicles for now cannot upload or offload and that for the fact that it was supposed to be implemented on Monday, 5th. February 2024 due to the police disagreement. The President of the Importers Association blamed it on the introduction of the new buses on the road. He agreed that the buses are going to make money for the government but they as business people pay far more in terms of taxes. So, he is urging the authorities to rethink their stance and act quickly to save their means of livelihood. He called for Government to transfer the main route of the new buses from Sanni Abacha street to Goodrich street to make it easy to unload and offload their goods into their shops.
Copyright –Published in Expo Times News on Friday, February 9th, 2024 (ExpoTimes News – Expo Media Group (expomediasl.com)
