A meeting to resolve the trade feud between the Ghana Union of Traders Association (GUTA) and the Nigerian Union of Traders Association in Ghana (NUTAG) has ended inconclusively.

This was the fourth meeting of the Ghana-Nigeria Joint Implementation Taskforce.

Speaking to Joy Business, Executive Secretary of the Ghana International Trade Commission, Frank Agyekum explained that the Nigerian traders were expected to provide documents of tenancy agreements and related business registrations to verify their legitimacy, but joined the meeting without the documents.

“The meeting had to be adjourned for another one week in the hope that by the time we meet again, the response from the consultation between the Nigerian traders and their government would have been resolved, so we can move ahead. In the interim, GUTA has been asked to hold off any actions until we have a response from the Nigerian government,” he said.

President of GUTA, Dr. Joseph Obeng assured of his outfit’s commitment to deliberations, and hopes NUTAG does same.

According to him, Nigerian traders have no choice but to live by the rules.

“I wouldn’t say it has been inconclusive, but I would say that it has been agreed that next week will be a decisive week. Our brothers [Nigerian traders] have clearly understood that they have to comply with this,” he stated.

The Minister for Economic Policy Guideline at the Nigerian Commission, Silvanus Dauda is optimistic the Nigerian traders will provide the needed documents in the next meeting.

“There are some technical issues that we’re going through. Also, I think we need some conviction on our part to order traders and retailers for the need to be in compliance because there are laws of the land that must be complied with for them to participate in the retail space. I expect that in the next meeting the needed documents will be provided,” he said.