Ghana is enforcing a ban on the importation of second-hand refrigerators, which the West African country says consume too much electricity and harm the environment.
The used refrigerators come cheap for many Ghanaians, who find it difficult to buy new fridges.
And the huge demand for the second hand fridges creates job for dealers.
But, according to the BBC, Energy Commission head, Mr. Alfred Ofosu-Ahenkora, says the second-hand refrigerators consume too much power because they were not built for use Africa.
The commission says some two million used fridges, mainly from Europe, have been imported in Ghana.
Many old fridges are said to contain Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), chemicals which damage the Earth’s ozone layer.
Some Ghanaian traders, who criticise the ban, say thousands of jobs will be lost.
“I can’t buy a container of brand new fridges, so we are pleading to the government to do something about it for us because some of us are going to be unemployed and we can’t take care of our children,” GhanaWeb quotes an aggrieved dealer as saying.
But Ofosu-Ahenkora of the Energy Commission says the ban will inspire manufacturers to produce fridges in Ghana and in the process create more jobs.
“It is not a matter of stopping some business but encouraging manufacturing. I think manufacturing will create more jobs than importation of second refrigerators,” he says, according to the BBC.
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