There may be no end in sight to street trading in the Nigerian ICT markets despite ban by the Lagos State Ministry of Environment even as street urchins collect N300.00 daily from hawkers.
A close monitoring of market activities in the largest African ICT market, the Computer Village Ikeja last Monday in Lagos showed that hawkers along the major streets in the said market pay N300.00 daily from Monday to Wednesday while Thursday through Friday attract N400.00.
With Okada riders still threatening free movement of goods and persons in the Computer Village that has continued to attract international software and hardware vendors, further monitoring of the market revealed that part of the money collected from these young Nigerians who make their daily living from street trading may not be going into the Lagos State Government treasury as tax.
The money collected daily from these show class traders , it was gathered, are paid to the Community Development Association, (CDA) of the market who has kicked against relocation of the market because of their interest.
Apart from street trading and Okada riders, further findings reveal that double parking by visitors and traders along the streets of the market have also contributed to congestion in the popular ICT market.
Parking space by day in the said market, Vanguard Hi-Tech also learnt attract N200.00 per hour for visitors and N200.00 daily for traders who own shops in the market.
“We are at the mercy of the street boys in the market. They control the market. It is beyond Police. It is beyond the Computer and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria, CAPDAN.
It is beyond shop owners. We pay N300.00 daily from Monday through Wednesday while Thursday through Saturday attract N400.00 respectively” a street trader who did not want to disclose his name told Vanguard Hi-Tech in an interactive last Monday.
According to him, any trader who fails to comply will have his or her wares seized by these street urchins said to be controlling what goes in the market.
With the failure of security agents in the market and the Lagos State Ministry of Environment to stem the ugly trend , there appears to be no end in sight, according to keen to observers.
Despite the fact that street hawking is not only limited to Computer Village Ikeja, further findings revealed that hawking in the said market which is increasing by the day because of lack of enforcement are having the back up of Area Boys and CDA who allocate spaces to them for agreed amount of money that never get to the government treasury.
It would be recalled that the officials of Internal Revenue Services of the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue had during the time of closure of the market for some days in 2008 said that there was no going back in banning street trading more street trading. No more illegal structures in Computer Village.
If a structure is illegal, it would have been marked. We will continue to restore sanity in this market for the interest of all, an Internal Revenue Services of the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue provided jobs to billions of jobless Nigerians.
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