Ghana's Second Hand Dealers Angry! -Over Energy Minister Decision To Ban Second Hand Products
They called on peace making stakeholders institutions including the Christian Council, the National Chief Imam and all opinion leaders in the country to come to their aid to abolish the Energy Commission intention through the government to ban Second Hand products in the country.
Freeman Koryekpor 
Members of Concerned National Second Hand Dealers Association of Ghana (CSHDAG) have registered their displeasure over the current announcement of Minister of Energy, Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh that the government through the Energy Commission has taken decision to ban the home used products from Ghanaian trading and business systems.
At a crowded press conference held at Nyamekye Junction in Accra on Wednesday September 7, 2022 and addressed by the President of CSHDAG, Mr Daniel Asare, the members stressed that such decision from the government will lead many Ghanaians into massive jobless.
Clad in red hand bands and head gears, the livid members of the Association pointed out that On 6th October 2021, the Energy Commission invited Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) which is the umbrella body that regulates the activities of trades in Ghana for a meeting and the whole meeting was about second hand electronic appliances.
"According to the Energy Commission, second hand electronic appliances consumes a lot of energy so they were going to ban those items from the country," they noted.
They stated that meeting was not all that successful due to some back and forth by GUTA members.
According to them, the Energy Commission then told us that they were going to invite us back for proper deliberation on the said matter.
They asserted that "We did not heard from them again but the next thing we heard was a news circulating on UTV (1 st September, 2022) and other news papers talking about the intention of the Energy Commission to ban Home Used Products
"According to the Energy Commission, they highlighted three (3) major challenges associated with Home Used Products.
They are; Ghana has become a dumping site for Home Used Products, high energy consumption and they also have some harmful effects to the human health," they said.
But in a quick response, the members of the Association stated categorically that all the allegations by the Energy Commission are totally false and does not wealth listening.
This, according to them was because; Ghana as a dumping site for home used products; we can say on authority that there is no place in this country that you can found home used as waste products which will cause environmental effects in the country.
They explained that; "Even our waste products are being collected by scrap dealers which are given to recycling companies in the country for recycling which again creates a lot of job opportunities for these scrap dealers and the various recycling companies in the country.
They maintained that, according to these recycling companies, they need even more of these products for their work.
"Energy consumption; all the home used electronic appliances being televisions, irons, microwaves, blenders, computers, gas and electronic cookers etc are all energy efficient.
"These goods or products are European standards which most of them are store rejects.They have a very low consumption rate as compared to the said brand new products imported from China and co which the Energy Commission are recommending for the general public," they said.
On Health issues; they asserted that the news circulating that Home Used Products have some chemical substances in them which causes health problems are totally false and baseless.
According to them, there was no scientific proof on this so where are the Energy Commission getting or gathering this misleading information from. It is an open secret that some brand new dealers are behind this.
On the employment opportunities, they indicated that the Home Used Products has given many people a lot of job opportunities which has drastically reduced over reliance on the government for jobs at large.
According to them, since these home used products serves as a source of job opportunities for dealers in this field it has taken huge burden from the government to fine or search jobs for these citizens(home used dealers) and lets not forgetting that these dealers are the bread winners of their families.
On the economic benefits; they indicated that home used products contributes a lot to our GDP.
According to them, when these goods are brought home, importers pays huge sum of amount as import duties to the port authorities and again together with dealers pays taxes to the government creating economic benefits.
"Usage; in this country, over 90% of the entire population uses home used products being televisions, microwaves, irons, blenders, washing machines, gas and electric cookers, mattresses etc which are of more quality and relatively cheaper in terms of price than the said brand new products which the whole masses bear us witness," they noted.
They indicated that even cars and others are brought to this country as home used..
They stressed that the information or news circulating on some media platforms by the Energy Commission are false and should not be given a hearing.
They called on peace making stakeholders institutions including the Christian Council, the National Chief Imam and all opinion leaders in the country to come to their aid to abolish the Energy Commission intention through the government to ban Second Hand products in the country.
