Local council administrators across Lagos State are modernising major markets within their domain. With new market structures, everywhere is look modern because old buildings are being replaced by more organised complexes, painfully, many of the occupants of the old markets are not returning to occupy the stalls because of cost.

The reconstructed Sanwo-Olu International Market, Ketu in Ikosi-Isheri Local Council Development Area (LCDA) and the Bola Ahmed Tinubu Market at Mile 12, Agboyi-Ketu LCDA are meant to symbolise growth, as occupants now operate in cleaner, safer, and better structured environments. However, more than a year after the new market buildings were commissioned, many of the lock-up shops are unoccupied.

At the Sanwo-Olu Market, over 200 shops have no new owners, while in Mile 12, over 70 shops are unoccupied principally because of its cost.

Many of the former occupants, especially petty traders, said they cannot afford to pay for a shop in the new markets.

Promise Eze, who has been selling foodstuff and cooking spices in Mile 12 since 2018, explained how the system worked. “The developer didn’t allow part payments. You had to pay the full N4.5 million before you could get your shop,” she said.

She further said: “When you buy the shop on the ground floor, you must also rent the one above it on the first floor. The rent is N500,000. With the agreement and agent fees, about N5.1 million is needed.”

She said while the shops on the ground floor were in demand, many people didn’t renew the rent for the ones on the first floor after a year, leaving many of the upper floors empty. “It is too expensive. That’s why a lot of shops upstairs are still locked,” she stated.

Another trader, Etumudon Favour, who sells foodstuff in the market, recalled how the whole demolition and rebuilding process was rushed, leaving traders confused and stranded. “They only gave us one-month notice before demolition. There was no special package or plan for people who had been there for years. We were treated like strangers.”

According to her, even after buying a shop, traders were forced to rent the shop above it. “If you did not pay for the shop immediately above yours, they would lock the shop you already bought,” she explained.

Etumudon added that many people tried to borrow money to secure shops, but the interest rates from banks were discouraging.

“When people could not pay, the developer brought in a bank to give loans. But their interest was too much. Some people had already borrowed from other banks before the developer brought his own bank. In the end, a lot of us just gave up.”

Adewale Adetunji, a longtime trader in Ketu, said he once owned five shops before the market was demolished. “There were promises that each trader would get at least one shop back, but none of that happened. They told us we would be compensated, but when the market was ready, we did not get anything,” he said.

Adewale said most of the people occupying the new shops were not the traders in the old market. “They are outsiders who could afford the price. Most of the people who built the market over the years to make it attractive to shoppers with their sweat are gone.”

In the Sanwo-Olu International Market, there are more activities, not in the main building, but in the open stalls built at the edge of the market to accommodate petty and small traders.

According to Tajudeen Alabi, the open kiosks are fully occupied because of the loan agreement the market authorities negotiated with a bank.

He said each open stall was sold for N1.2 million, with the bank’s interest; it came to about N1.6 million, to be paid over two years. “That’s why the open shops got filled up quickly, as traders could manage to pay that.

“But when it comes to the main complex, it is a different story. Each shop goes for N7 million with additional N100,000 for allocation fee and N150,000 for service charge. Which market woman can pay that?” Alabi asked, adding, “many of the lock-up shops are still empty. And the painful part is that most of us who were here before the demolition cannot return to buy the shops.”

For Mojisola Sanni, her mother used to run two shops in Ketu Market, which she inherited after her mother’s death. “They destroyed our block of shops and gave us nothing. To even apply for a new shop, we must pay millions. Where do we get that kind of money from? From being an owner, I have become a tenant renting a corner in another person’s store,” she said.