Business, Featured
The Lagos state government demolishes old markets to build ultra-modern market where majority of the shops are unoccupied because of high rents
By Anayo Ezugwu | – Jan. 25, 2019 @ 15:05 GMT |
REGINA Onuze, a trader at the Ile-Epo foodstuff market, had hit the road early in the morning of April 27, 2018, hoping for increased sales. But on arrival, it was a bulldozer piling up the debris of the market that greeted her.
Her shop and the grains in it were part of the ruins of the bulldozer. She had been selling in that market for 10 years. She screamed at the peak of her voice. “I am finished.”
Another trader in the market, Kingsley Chukwuma, lamented that he did not know where to go after his shop was demolished to pave way for a mega market, the type that only people with deep pockets could afford. According to him, his means of livelihood had been taken away.
Traders at the Ile-Epo market are not alone in the demolition spree sweeping Lagos hitherto makeshift markets to pave way for what is now referred to as mega-markets, the type Lagos State government officials say is befitting for its mega city status.
Another trader at the demolished Ogba Retail market, who identified herself as Mrs. Adejumo, said her family source of livelihood was taken away the day the government pulled down the structures.
She recalled that the market, which had been in existence since 1985 before it was pulled down in 2017, was the place she was making her living.
Her major regret was that sales at the market had just peaked in the last two years before the government came with its bulldozer. “People have not really been coming to buy stuff in the past. But in the last two years, people became aware of the market and patronage improved before the government sent us packing,” she said.
The Mega-Markets
The pace of mega-markets springing up in Lagos is high. It is part of the plans of making Lagos the first mega city in Nigeria. Most major markets around the state, from the Island to the Mainland and the suburbs are currently being converted to match the idealised status of the city.
Moving around the already completed mega-markets like Alade Ultra-Modern Market, Oyingbo Modern Market, Tejuosho ultra-Modern Market, among others, the majority of the shops are unoccupied. Traders attributed the reasons why people are not occupying the stalls to high rents.
Some of those who were able to afford to rent stalls at the markets are rueing their decision. A sales girl at Hope Trust Stores, who deals in kitchen appliances, electronics, and clothing, at the Alade Ultra-Modern Market, said the patronage at the market is among the lowest in Lagos. “Sales are very poor here,” she lamented.
Data shows a downward trend in the number of markets approved in Lagos State from 2013 -2016. The drastic decline began in 2015 when the number of approved market became less than half of what it was in 2013. In 2016, only 255 approved market existed across the 57 local governments and local council development areas in the state. What happened to the other markets that traders had long traded in? Yes, in Lagos, some less befitting markets, according to the government’s definition, are destroyed yearly to give way to the mega markets that suit the projected mega city status of the state. Traders are displaced and families rendered poor and unemployed as some existing markets are demolished and replaced with model markets; thus, the declined value.
The markets have three different stalls. The open shops, locks ups and kee klamps. Lock ups are the most feature stalls in these markets. Are all these stall occupied? Data didn’t indicate the number of stalls occupied by traders in all the markets. However, on-site visits to some of the markets revealed that many of the stalls are unoccupied; yet, the Lagos State Government is still on new market construction spree.
The Situation in Alade market
The new Alade Market, down the bend on Obafemi Awolowo Way, just about 300 metres away from the old one which was demolished in 2016, lacks all the vibes of a Lagos market – bubbling and hustling of traders and prospective customers, all seeking to extract the best deal from one another.
Except for some broken construction equipment lying fallow, the old demolished Alade market has remained sealed since 2016 when the Ikeja local council evicted its traders with the promise to rebuild it into a modern market.
The new market has fewer traders, many shops under lock and key and fewer prospective customers. It has two phases with a combined capacity of 504 shops. However, many of those shops are empty.
Market leader of the new Alade market declined to speak when asked for an interview. But relying on eye witness account, almost 50 percent of the shops are under lock and key. Also, there is a new shopping mall nearing completion right beside the new Alade market springing up. Who will rent these new stalls remain to be seen?
The new Alade market lacks the variety of the old one – clothes shops, electronics stores, telecom operators, courier firms, newspaper vendors, makeshift bukas, eateries for the middle class, and other such business lines.
Then came the new market with 20 toilets, 350kva generator, a creche, praying ground for Christians and Muslims, three boreholes, as well as an ample car park that can take up to 350 cars at a time. However, those car parks are empty. Many stalls are unoccupied.
Annual rent at the new Alade Market is N450,000 as against the less than N100,000 the traders were paying before. This has rubbed off on the prices of goods. For instance, an electric jug which could be bought for N5,000 at the regular market at nearby Ikeja Computer Village goes for N12,000 at the new Alade Market.
While traders at the new Alade Market are lamenting poor patronage, the old market, just about 300 metres away from the new one, is to be converted to a shopping mall in a deal the Ikeja Council entered with Masters Reality, a developer to build the new market.
The developer was to invest N6.9 billion in the mall on a Build, Own, and Transfer, BOT, basis to span 30 years. But two years after traders at the old market were chased out to allow for the construction of the shopping mall, the place has remained seal with no construction activity taking place.
Tejuosho Market, Unattractive to Sellers and Buyers
Tejuosho Market, Yaba is also one the empty mega markets in Lagos State. Since it completion in 2015, many of the shops within the shopping complex are still unoccupied. The Tejuosho market with many buyers and sellers, seems unattractive to both sellers and buyers, despite being built as a modern market that befits Lagos.
The market contains about 2,383 lock-up shops in a sprawling four-storey building and about 1,251 K-clamps units, banking spaces, 14 food court spaces, eight lifts, two escalators connecting the four floors and 600 parking lots.
After the reconstruction of the market, the rent for each shop rise astronomically, with a very high number of those who had shops in the old market incapable of renting or buying shops in the ultra-modern facility. For instance, regular rate of shops at the transformed Tejuosho market goes between N600,000 and N5 million annually, depending on the location and size of such shops.
The Empty Markets and the Contracting Process
Undercover reporters have revealed that due to the high cost of rent, many of the old traders could not regain their new stalls because the new rates are out of their reach.
At the Tejuosho market, the rate jumped from N150,000, which used to be the maximum rent per annum to N600,000 and N5 million annually, depending on the location and size of such shops. This scenario has led to the shops being too expensive for the old occupants to return to them.
Undercover reporters also revealed that while it is the local government that is in charge of formulating policies on market in Lagos State, they are only in-charge on paper. Lagos State ministry of physical planning gives approval for construction of such mega-markets.
Every one of the mega markets takes the form of a Public Private Partnership, PPP, with the state government determining the preferred bidder in a contracting arrangement that is secret to the public. The contracting process lacks transparency. Contractors handling the projects and true cost remain. Yusuf Ibrahim, who owns a shop opposite the new Tejuosho Market, said if the contracting process was open to the traders, some of the traders would have returned to the new complex. “We deserve to know the cost of constructing this market because we are the ones that supposed to occupy it,” he said.
A transparent contracting process often encourages competitive bidding, and it protects the interest of the traders. Unfortunately, accessing data on public contracts in Lagos state from origin to implementation remains a challenge, thereby leaving the traders at the mercy of shady government officials and profit seeking investors. For instance, there was no public bidding advertisement for the Alade Market which Masters Reality was awarded a 30-year-old lease for its N6.9 billion worth of investment. Contracting in Lagos should not be enshrouded in secrecy so that traders can evaluate which bidder provided fair pricing that serve the interest of both parties.
While Section 22 of the Public Procurement Law in Lagos State stipulates that the process must be competitive to allow all interested bidders equal information and opportunities, it however did not mandate the board of the agency, which has the powers to approve such bid, to make public the bidding process in the media. Such scarcity of details concerning public service delivery gives little or no idea about the fairness, equity, and competitiveness of the procurement process – or their lack thereof.
How do traders know the best contractors get the right jobs? How much exactly is paid and for what period? How are projects prioritised by the state government? What constitutes a good project? There is a need for data on public procurement in Lagos State to be accessible to traders in forms that are comprehensible, usable and actionable because law abiding citizen in the state makes contributions that are valuable to its progress.
Efforts to speak with the commissioner for Physical Planning in Lagos state, Rotimi Ogunleye was not successful. His office is responsible for giving approval for market construction. It was unclear whether the interest of the displaced traders were often taken into consideration before such approvals are granted.
Whether the interest of the traders was considered or not, as far as open contracting is concerned, Lagos State government needs to be transparent and open with its contracting process. These would reduce corruption and making governance beneficial to all.
With this, the Lagos mega-city desired by traders at Alade market, Tejuosho market and many other markets in the state would be achieved.
Sponsored by Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria
– Jan. 25, 2019 @ 15:05 GMT |
Tags: The Empty Lagos Mega Markets
