The contractor handling the on-going rehabilitation of Dei-dei Regional Market infrastructure, Messrs Ikhlas Int. Ventures Limited has vowed to deliver the project within the 12 calendar month time-line issued by the Association of shop owners.
Making this declaration Thursday at the Market, during the site handing- over ceremony, the Chairman of the Company, Alh. Aminu Hamza Who is also one of the major investors in the market said he couldn’t afford to disappoint the Association being a fellow stakeholder in the project.
His words: “I can’t afford to let you down. I promise you, if we start this project, it won’t stop; by the grace of God, it won’t exceed the one year timeline”.
True to the words of the Chairman, work commenced on the project site immediately after he spoke.
Earlier in his remark the Chairman Dei- Dei Regional Market Shop Owners Association, Alh. Tukur Abubakar reiterated that the contract is to be funded hundred per cent by the shop owners- through a Development Levy.
According to him the various allotees in the market have been categorized into: Banks, Warehouse, Public Conveniences, Lock up Shops and Informal sector(open stalls) which will contribute N500,000.00, N200,000.00, N200,000.00, N100,000.00 and N25,000.00 , respectively.
Alh. Tukur lamented the dilapidated status of the market while urging the allotees wherever they are to support the rehabilitation project by ensuring timely payment of their levies saying: ‘if we fail in this particular effort, I don’t know when we will be able to do it again’.
The Association Chairman thanked the Abuja Markets Management Limited (AMML) for their support and collaboration in ensuring that the market takes off.
Also speaking at the occasion, the Managing Director AMML, Abubakar Usman Faruk assured the investors in the market of a cutting-edge professional project management throughout the period of the project.
Abubakar who was represented by the H.O.D Corporate Services, AMML, Arc. Ibrahim Uzaibat therefore thanked the Association for appointing AMML as the project manager even as he urged all allottees to key in to this effort of the Association in order to achieve timely delivery.
With close to 7000 lock up shops and open stalls sitting on 36.5 Hectares, the market which was conceptualized in 2005 is unarguably the largest within the Federal Capital Territory.
Allotees in the Market through its Association were recently given approval by the FCT Administration to pursue a self-funded business module that will see them upgrading the infrastructure in the market.
