BEFORE now, an open place could easily become a booming market in Lagos within months. The successes of such emergency markets possibly got the state government interested and suddenly the idea of turning practically all markets in the state to either modern or ultra-modern markets became the in-thing, with government partnering with private developers to raise the standard of targeted markets.
Some of the “seized” markets were also moved into new settlements. Always at the heart of the attendant crises is the issue of retention by original owners and the new pricing of the shops is said to be government’s joker of getting rid of the owners, because many of them are always unable to pay for the ultra-modern shops.
Those who managed to pay outright or rent the new shops are now complaining bitterly about an investment that is not yielding anything for them due to many ills plaguing their new trading points.
Alade Market of low values
Alade Market was demolished and moved to a new location recently by the authorities of Ikeja Local Government Area. It was also handed over to a developer, Market Reality, with a promise that after construction, it would be returned to the original owners. But that was not the case as the original owners could not afford the amount demanded after the completion of the market.
But with the so-called new ultra-modern markets all over the state, from Alade to Tejusho and Oshodi markets, the pains of their beauty appear to far outweigh the gains.
Mrs Foluke Adeniyi Jones, owner of Topshop Limited in Alade Market, explained that in terms of beauty, the market is better, compared to the old market because of the modern facilities but she lamented that “the period we are now is currently dry as there is no money.”
Mrs Adeniyi said: “When we were in the old market, we usually had huge sale compared to the new one. To make matters more complicated, our customers don’t have free access to the market as only one road leads to the market.
“Even the only access road we have is always blocked by vehicles and the developer of this market is building another set of shops blocking the access road with granite, bamboo and other building materials and due to this menace, our customers are lamenting bitterly because of the stress of getting to the market.”
She noted that flood, during rainy season, is another battle they are faced with it, as the downpour this season is very high and this in return, discourages customers from coming in, resulting in low sales.
“If you want to buy a shop in Alade Market, we are talking of N4 million which is the least and if you are going for rent, it starts from N350,000 to N400,000 and the difference in the price is because of the location; the front row is more expensive than the inner,” she stressed.
A sales girl, Morenikeji Alakeji, who deals in fabrics, fumed about the low sales in the current location, compared to the former market as well as the non-availability of power supply since the inception of the market.
“We also have electricity problem in this market. It is very sad that a market close to Allen Avenue will not have electricity. We have been complaining and have been to the secretariat of Ikeja Local Government Area which owns Alade Market and they too have not done anything. It has been a year since we moved here, yet we don’t have power supply. We run on generator,” she disclosed.
She said further that the issue of security in the market had been giving the traders nightmare because of a shop that was recently burgled. “We don’t have fence and, as you can see, this place is open and the excuse for not erecting a fence is the canal at the back of the market.”
Mrs Oladoja Taiwo, a shop owner, said sales were low and customers complained of high costs of goods.
“We are not selling much. It was better in the old market, although there was no space there. This place is better with regard to space but we now record low sales. I think we have low sales because it is a new area, but the major challenge we have here is flood in the rainy season, and security. We have inefficient and inexperienced security as one shop was burgled recently, thereby causing unnecessary panic for shop owners,” she lamented.
An agent, Mrs Adeola Bada, disclosed to Saturday Tribune that outright purchase of a shop in Alade Market costs N4 million while rent is N300,000 per annum. She said all the shops had been disposed of and whoever wanted to buy or lease now would have to get them from those who bought them off the developer.
Saturday Tribune’s findings showed that to rent a shop in the old Alade market cost between N50,000 and N84,000, depending on the location in the market.
The old Alade market also had multiple entry and exit points and more importantly, it was located in Allen Avenue, a better-known area in Lagos while the new one is located in an area with no specific address or description, with a single point of entry and exit.
A sales girl, Miss Bukola Alade, said the singular access point was normally blocked by vehicles, thereby making customers to change their mind about entering the market.
Efforts to speak with the Facility Manager of Market Reality for his reaction to the complaints and allegations were unsuccessful as he refused to make himself available for a chat.
Tejuosho wonder
Tejuosho Ultramodern Main Market, a five-story building with about 500 shops, is another drama entirely because as one enters the market, traders who cannot afford a shop would be seen displaying their wares right inside the open space in the market and the “illegal” space they occupy isn’t free. The traders pay through their noses.
Paul Orji, a space owner who deals in fairly-used clothes (popularly known as Okrika) explained that “we were only given this passage to manage so that we could leave the road. This place we are was given to us at N84,000 and N60,000 for agreement and commission fee, totalling N140,000 per annum. Although N84,000 is affordable, but that N60,000 for commission and agreement is too much for us because that money would have been used to get more goods. It is very painful. It is not okay by us.”
Saturday Tribune ran into one Bagudu who owned a shop at the old market that was demolished by the state government: “The shops are too costly for the common man. Many can’t even afford the N84,000 not to talk of additional N60,000 for agreement and commission. Anyway, that is the change we voted for.”
To add salt to their injury, an agreement was reportedly signed with the management that they could only occupy the passage between 6 o’clock in the morning and 12 o’clock midday.
The squatting traders called on the state government to come to their aid by reducing the price of the open space so that those who lost their shops to the developer could afford it.
“It is not as if we to don’t want a shop inside or we prefer staying outside, but the prices are too high for us. You can see for yourself empty shops. When they were planning to reconstruct this place, we were told that it was going to be affordable but now, the price is high. We can’t purchase the shop because of the high cost.
“We are ready to occupy the vacant shops but the price is really scary. We plead with the government to do something about the problem we are facing,” Bagudu added.
Emmanuel Akaubudike, who deals in wholesale of fabrics, said: “There is no telecommunications network in the market. Sometimes when our customers want to send pictures of fabrics to their clients or put a call through to them, all you hear is ‘network not available’. This is pathetic in a market that is called ultramodern. We have informed the facilities manager about it and nothing has yet been done about it.
“We also have electricity problem here, as we rarely get power supply. Even the generator used in running the market is not constant. We have resorted to rechargeable lamps and this has greatly discouraged customers from entering the market, which is adversely affecting sales.
“The pipes here are even leaking and we witness flooding whenever it rains here and our customers complain bitterly about it. A car space at the parking lot is N300 for our customers. If we want to use the restroom, we pay N50 while customers pay N100. I own a shop in the former Tejuosho market. In terms of sale, it was okay but now we rarely get customers,” he emphasised.
Mrs Bisi Bada, who deals in baby items, has a slightly different complaint: “We don’t have much challenge here. The only challenge is people complaining of not really knowing enough about the market. They claim they don’t know there is a market here. You know there are shops around us and they are the first customers see before coming inside.”
Bada explained that business at the former Tejuosho market was far better than what was now being experienced and flood was a major issue she wanted the managers of the complex to look into urgently. According to her, customers are discouraged from accessing the market.
At the facilities manager’s office, the staff members claimed their boss was unavailable.
Saturday Tribune was told that outright purchase ranges from 6,966 million per square metre to 31,992 million per square metre, while rent at the old market was between N65,000 and N120,000.
On Monday, when our correspondents visited the market at about 10.00 a.m., there was no power supply to the facility with the central generator not switched on. Many traders said the situation met by Saturday Tribune was the usual situation in the market. With individual generators outlawed, the silence in the market gave the impression of a graveyard.
At that time of the first working day of the week, only one customer was sighted in the whole of the market driving in. When approached, Lady Katrina Cole, a Canadian, told Saturday Tribune that the N300 parking fee was utter rip-off. She described it as outrageous, noting that the fee had been a major factor discouraging her from patronising the market, especially when she could get what she wanted elsewhere.
According to her, “a market should be a place one can enter as many times as one possibly can in a day but with the car park charge, one cannot try that here”.
Oshodi ultra-problems
Arriving at Alhaja Abibat Mogaji Market, Kairo in Oshodi, traders were seen sitting idly and looking dejected. It took a lot of efforts for Saturday Tribune to persuade them to speak as they all were unwilling to do so. They complained of high cost of commodities, high cost of living and economic downturn which, they said, had adversely affected sales as they rarely get customer, unlike before.
The Manager of Provida Investment Ltd, which manages the market, Mr Abdulwakil Abiodun, said shops located on the upper part of the building cost N180,000, while the outlets on the basement cost N300,000. He added that the difference in the prices was due to customers not always willing to take the pain to climb the stairs.
Abiodun explained that there were varieties of shops in the market and that unlike others, his company did not do outright selling off but leased the shops for 17 years. A shop on the basement attracts N2.2 million lease, while those on the upper floors cost N1 million and the buyer must also pay between N500,000 and N600,000 yearly.
In all the markets visited by Saturday Tribune, more than 70 percent of the shops were vacant and unoccupied and the situation has been attributed to the huge price tag on them. But the traders have expressed the hope that with the passage of time, things would change for the better.
When calls were put through to the Sole Administrator, Ikeja Local Government Area, Mr Biodun Taiwo, to react to the lack of accessibility, insecurity, high cost of buying and renting shops, lack of power supply, flooding and reasons for not putting a fence around the market, he promised to make available the contact number of the council’s Market Officer. Subsequent calls to remind him of his promise rang out while text messages sent to his mobile line were not replied.
However, someone called just before press time, claiming to be the manager of Market Administration, Ikeja Local Government Area but refused to disclose his name. He said he wanted to react to the complains of the traders about power supply, flood, insecurity, high cost of rent and purchase as well as inaccessibility to the market. All entreaties to get him to say more about his identity were rebuffed.
He, however, explained that: “We are not unaware that power is not supplied to the market. We ought to, I mean both the local government and Market Reality, the market manager, but some things have to be put in place. Each shop must have a prepaid meter and other accessories have to be put in place but all these are yet to be put in place” he stated.
On the use of generator in the market, he said the local government’s intention was that “even though there will be generator in the market, it has to be a centralised one because apart from noise pollution and health hazard, if individuals begin to store petrol in the shop, definitely if there is a fire outbreak, it will affect the whole market. The management is currently working on that,” he added.
“Concerning the rent, because we don’t sell, the local government has some shops allocated to the tenants of the old market at N50,000, so these are the people who are selling and renting it out at an exorbitant price and mind you the other shops have been concession out to Market Realty Limited and we don’t have power over the price anyone wants to place on it. Even in the old market some tenants paid up to N600,000 down to N250,000. It all depends on the location,” he stressed.
He added that the issue of burglars in the marker was not brought to the notice of the local government and “we expect the facilities manager to provide round-the-clock security.”
Reacting to the complaints that the market is not fenced, he said due to the canal, the market could not be fenced but a wire net was provided to barricade the market.
On lack of accessibility to the market, he said, “there are three access points to the market. One is from the old market, the other from the back of the market and the last one, from Oregun Road. And as for the granite and sands obstructing free flow of traffic, I will look into that personally,” he said.
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