TECHIMAN MARKET, THE HUB OF ECONOMIC EMPLOYMENT

Wednesday to Friday are always the busiest days of the week in Techiman due to business activities within the municipality. These are the days where Hotels are fully booked by traders; taxies and bus drivers also make lots of money. This is because Techiman is the leading market town in Ghana and one of the biggest food markets in West Africa with three major market days weekly.

Historically, Thursday was the only market day in the week for the people of Techiman; and yam is said to also be the trade-mark commodity in which Techiman is known of nationwide.

My research revealed that centuries ago in Techiman, the King, Nana Tekyi Ameyaw usually called for a durbar in his palace every Thursday evening after the busy market activities within his kingdom. After entertaining these farmers who brought yam from their farms to be sold at the market, he then bought all the remaining yam that were not sold so that they could all go home repeatedly with joy and readiness to come back again the following week. In his generosity, he shared these yams among his subjects.

This practice encouraged these farmers and they began to bring their produce earlier on Wednesday due to the warm reception from the King. After each durbar on Thursday evenings, they normally slept over to Friday before starting their journey back home. They started adding other food items like: Beans, onions, vegetable oil, pineapples, plantain, rice paper, fish etc.

Several years later, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays becomes major market days in Techiman. The seed of generosity sown by the King of the land has paid off today by bringing buyers and sellers from all the ten regions of Ghana and other countries within the sub regions on a weekly basis.

When I visited the famous Ghana Food Market in Techiman, I noticed that there was nothing lacking in the market. From food stuffs to textiles product, electronics, forex, banking, churches, transportation and many more activities are witnessed as daily occurrences.

I spent some time at the maize section of the market and noticed the enormous job opportunities it provides. I observed that there were men and women engaging in sifting grains of maize from the unwanted particles. Others also sweep the falling grains and gathered them for resifting. Others were also filling hundreds of sacks with the sifted grains. Another department was also engaged in the weighing of the filled maize sacks to ascertain the right measurement before handing them over to tailor who were there sealing these sacks for exportation by traders.

I noticed that buying and selling was going on with drivers, they were also negotiating their fares and loaders loading trucks. Government officials were also commissions to collect their taxes from these traders.

Accessing the employment opportunities that this maize section of the market alone opened for the populace; one can only say that indeed, Techiman Market with many other commodities sold in it will remain a real hub of economic employment for Ghanaian citizen and others from neighbouring countries.