Fierce resistance at Makola as Standards Authority closes down textiles shops for allegedly selling fake Chinese products

The Ghana Standards Authority, GSA, Thursday stormed the Makola market in Accra to check the authenticity of some textiles believed to be substandard.

This follows reports from buyers that most of the imported textiles are of poor quality and contain chemicals harmful to the human body.

Officials made up of the GSA and the Police were however, met with resistance from the traders as the team arrived at the market.

With the help of the Police, the situation was brought under control.

Addressing the media after the exercise, the Business Development Manager at GSA, George Anti, said the exercise forms part of activities to rid the market of sub-standard products.

Some samples of textiles including Phoenix Hi-Target, Printex Kente Cloth, ATL Premium, GTP Adepa Dumas were ceased for testing by the GSA officials.

While some traders cooperated with the exercise, others did not, as they rushed to lock up their shops to prevent officials of the GSA and the Police from having access to their shops. About three shops were barred from selling after some samples were taken from their stock.

Mr. Anti noted that unapproved chemicals used in producing textiles posed health risk to consumers, hence the authority would stop at nothing to ensure that the right things are done.