The Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development has set up a committee to investigate the fire that gutted the New Kumasi Kejetia Market in the Kumasi metropolis of the Ashanti Region.

The Minister of State-designate to the Ministry of Local Government, Mr Osei Bonsu Amoah, said this in an interview with the media when he visited the fire scene today, Friday, March 17, 2023.

The minister was accompanied by the Deputy Minister for Local Government, Mr Collins Ntim; the Director-General of the NADMO, Nana Agyeman Prempeh; and the KMA boss, Mr Samuel Pyne among others.

Mr Amoah said whether the market will be reopened for business or not when the three days given for the closure of the market elapse will depend on the recommendations by the security agencies.

The Kumasi Mayor, Mr Sam Pyne, pleaded with the traders to stay away from the property for the security agencies to do their work to protect lives and properties. 

For his part, the Chairman of the Federation of Traders, Nana Akwasi Prempeh, welcomed the minister’s decision to set up the committee to investigate the fire incident. 

The blaze started in one of the shops on the last floor of the market around 4:30 pm on Wednesday and spread to other shops.

Firefighters who were called to the scene were able to confine the fire and put it under control from further spreading.

Property amounting to thousands of Ghana cedis were burnt in the inferno in the market which was commissioned for business in 2021.

A rope was used to rescue traders who had been trapped on the last floor of the market before a crane machine was brought to their rescue.

The market has since been shut down for three days for a fire audit.