The House of Representatives, weekend, called for the intervention of Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, parliament to prevent deportation of Nigerian businessmen from Ghana.
Chairman of the Diaspora Committee of the House of Representatives, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa last week led a lobby team to the ECOWAS parliament to appeal for intervention.
Dabiri-Erewa, who also led the delegation to its Speaker, Sen. Ike Ekweremadu on the situation in Ghana, urged him to intervene in the matter to halt the deportation or the Nigerian government might consider breaking diplomatic ties with that country.
“The Ghanaian Parliament has a law which says that before you can do petty business in Ghana, you must deposit $300,000. Most of these Nigerian traders in Ghana, deal in small things, such as CDs, videos, cassettes. So for you to say bring $300,000 before you can set up a petty business, is a bit hypocritical. This has been discussed at the Presidential level.
“I remember when the Ghanaian President came here, we discussed it and he said: ‘no, it is not targeted at you and don’t worry about it.’ The Ghanaian Minister of Trade was even in Nigeria and assured that it was not targetted at Nigerians, that Nigerians are okay, but throughout last week, Nigerian traders have been given the directive to leave within the week.”
She added, “They based this on a Foreign Investment Act of 1994, which specifically directed that foreigners, including Nigerians, must register with a minimum requirement of not less than $300,000 and this is about N46million, and even if the traders come together, I don’t think they will get N46million to do business there.
“Ghana should not take us back to 28 years ago when we had issues in West Africa”.
The lawmaker, who expressed confidence in the ability of the Deputy Senate President, Sen. Ekweremadu to resolve the issue, called on the parliament to make haste and halt the agony of Nigerian traders in that country.
