Leadership of main market in Onitsha, Anambra State has extended market hours from 5pm to 6pm daily.
Chairman, Caretaker Committee, Chief Innocent Ezennia who disclosed this to reporters on Wednesday said the extension was to cover paralysed business activities ocasioned by the weekly Monday sit-at-home directive.
“Formerly, traders will be in a hurry because we close by 5pm. But now it is 6pm, to enable them and their customers have enough time to transact their businesses,” he said.
Ezennia further revealed that most touts in the market, some of who are graduates, have been converted to apprentice traders so they could be established after learning one trade or another.
Reacting to cleanliness of the market as directed by government, Ezennia said, “We have two standard trucks for evacuation of refuse in the market and personnel who we pay and they clean the market both in the morning and evening.
“We cleared the roads/streets in the market such that three vehicles can pass in a space of three lanes without obstruction. The previous administrations were not able to decongest Johnson street. I was the one that decongested it and sacked the touts in the market.
“I also purchased the long sitting chairs in the market Secretariat hall, to change the image of the hall as I inherited nothing on assumption of office.
“I personally brought the INEC registration officials and four machines to make registration easy for traders and the machines were placed at the Secretariat for easy access.
“Our Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo is a game changer, and that is what I am doing here, to better the lots of the traders in the market.
“I’m directed to restore the lost glory of the market by the Governor through the Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Hon. Obinna Ngonadi.”
