The Owode-Yewa market prides to be one of the older markets in Yewa South LGA, Ogun State. The market, just like most markets in the state, converges every 5 days for buying and selling activities most especially for farmers. The market has 3 batches of traders – morning, afternoon and evening, this implies that some traders come for a few hours of the day for their business.
One of the key challenges of the market was the lack of proper structure, bad roads (this has reduced the number of buyers coming to the market), toilets, drainage, sanitation, dispute resolution etc. But in their capacity, and before the training by SEDIN, they have been able to address some of the challenges such as sanitation – a team was mobilized to ensure that the market is clean.
The market has been able to tackle some of these challenges after SEDIN intervention through capacity-building exercises. Particularly, the training in dispute resolution has been identified as one which has supported the market growth. A dispute in the market is now resolved through the market association and all cases are documented for record purposes. Through the training on enhancing the market structure, they now have a market constitution, they are renovating their secretariat where they hold meetings to resolve market-related matters. Various meetings are also held to cascade this training and capacity to other traders in the market.
Some Key Results
- A dispute resolution committee was set up
- A developed market constitution
- Renovating an abandoned structure into a secretariat for market coordination
- Improved knowledge among traders by cascading training
The Market Intervention
The market intervention is an initiative of the Pro-Poor Growth and Promotion of Employment in Nigeria Programme – SEDIN.
The relevance and importance of local markets and improved market services (including facilities) cannot be over-emphasized as they provide strategic institutions and economic hubs for the development of a local economy and the facilitation of business exchanges. In a market, boundaries segregation and barriers do not exist as it congregates people with a shared interest in commerce, exchange and livelihood aspirations. Therefore SEDIN has taken an interest in market intervention, considering that markets play such a significant role in daily commerce, livelihoods (providing income and employment) and improved welfare (helping to lift people out of poverty) of our target groups.
None of these interventions is funded but focused on building and enhancing the existing human capacity in the market through the associations.
“ GIZ has made us more confident in ourselves and that anything we plan to achieve, we can succeed.”
Chief Wasiu Ikuoye, General Secretary
