Most complain of high shop rents and slow business inside the markets
Traders in the Wuse District of Abuja have converted the Herbert Macaulay Highway and adjoining streets into an evening market as soon as the Wuse Main Market closes at 6pm daily.
Sellers and buyers are daily engaged in business transactions along the highway and adjoining streets and even extends to the popular Berger Roundabout, rendering the roads almost impassable by motorists.
Both sellers and buyers attributed the situation to the high cost of shops and service charge by the market management, while some said they made money outside than inside the market.
One of the traders, Celestine Weke, who deals in men’s wears, said when he discovered that his colleagues who came from other places to sell along the road side were making more sales than him, he decided to join them.
“Our colleagues, who were coming from other places to sell here, were making more transactions than us inside the market because they sell at reduced prices,” he said. “A pair of trouser inside the market is sold at N1, 500, but I am compelled to sell it at a reduced price of N1,000. People respond and we make quick sales outside than being inside the market.”
Another trader, John Aba, who sells women’s clothing, said that since he could not afford to pay for the shops, he preferred going round the city to do his business.
“Prices of shops and other charges are too costly for me; I will rather prefer to locate strategic places where there is much population to sell my commodities than going inside the market where business is not moving,” he said. “More so, buyers respond to low prices of things outside here than being inside. You can see it yourself how busy we are now, which cannot be so while inside.”
Chinwe Osahieme, a buyer, who was pricing a mobile phone, said that she bought her former phone at N15, 000 inside the market but paid N10,000 for a similar phone outside the market. “You can imagine the big difference,” she said.
Joy Nwamara, another customer, said: “Besides, market closes at 6pm in the evening, and many people who closed late from work and who cannot make their purchases stop by to buy their needs along the road.”
This development has worsened the environmental situation in the roads as the waste products of this trading are often left behind. It also creates a fertile environment for pick-pockets and other criminals.
