There’s a looming diplomatic row as Burkina Faso’s Military leader Ibrahim Traoré has disclosed that his country will consult Mali and Niger to take a final decision on whether to allow Ghanaian traders and other West African nationals to do business in their countries.
He said a final determination would be made on the matter as consultation would first have to be made by leaders of Niger Mali and Burkina Faso.
”We remain pan-African. Anyone in Africa or an African who wants to come to Burkina, is welcomed. We will decide what measures to take in due course regarding traders coming from Ghana, Nigeria and other West African countries),” he said.
The three nations officially announced last week that they were departing from the sub-regional ECOWAS trading bloc.
This raised fears from the Ghana Union of Traders (GUTA) which said its members import vegetables and other livestock from Mali Burkina Faso and Niger would be affected.
“This thing is going to affect us more than the other member states. We should bypass the ECOWAS to find an immediate solution,” Dr Joseph Obeng, President of the union said.
He added “the cross border trading activities that goes on is going to be impacted negatively. Look at the cola nut that we ship to Niger, the onions that we bring from there and the tomatoes that we bring in.
“Also consider the bulk of things that the Burkinabes come to buy from us [in Ghana] so definitely it’s going to have a negative impact”.
Ibrahim Traore added that the departure from ECOWAS is well thought.
He added “it’s not a burst of anger. If it was an outburst, we would have done it a long time ago”.
