The Mayor of Kumasi, Richard Ofori Agyemang Boadi, is taking a firm stand against the city’s sanitation challenges and unauthorized street trading, launching a bold decongestion campaign set to begin on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.
In an interview on Citi FM’s Eyewitness News with Umaru Sanda Amadu, Mayor Boadi made it clear that he’s not interested in spending public funds on police to enforce the rules.
“I don’t believe in using the police for decongestion because I will spend so much on them, and after that, we will get back to the status quo,” he explained.
He added that parts of Kumasi’s Central Business District have been taken over by traders cooking and selling food in the middle of the road — a situation he finds both dangerous and unattractive.
“Those on the middle of the road, some of them are cooking, selling all manner of food, it’s not attract, I want to deal with it head-on.”
The Mayor didn’t hold back on the severity of the city’s sanitation crisis either. > “Kumasi is engulfed with so much filth and I want to deal with it head-on.”
While he remained tight-lipped about whether President John Dramani Mahama has officially backed the initiative, Mayor Boadi urged Ghanaians to stay focused on the ultimate goal.
“We won’t get to that point, let the focus be on the end product.” The two-week decongestion exercise will target pavement traders and vendors operating in unauthorized locations, as the Mayor promises to clean up the city — with or without a police escort.
