2023-12-13 23:03:07
Under construction since 2019 and financed by a sovereign loan of 90M euros from the French Development Agency (AFD), the large market of Bouaké should open its doors in the last quarter of 2024, 26 years following the fire which ravaged the old market and which made the city famous. Located halfway between the Sahel and the coastal zone, the new complex will become the largest covered market in West Africa. The complex commercialization phase began on April 5, 2022, and is expected to continue until the end of the year. 76% of the 7,827 locations have already found takers, but Bouaké has 15,000 traders and not everyone will have a place.
Despite the work in progress, this 12 hectare plot of land in the center of the city still seems calm. In a few months, nearly 8,000 traders and tens of thousands of customers will roam the aisles of this impressive market divided into 5 blocks. Maatoug Ben Amer is in charge of the site plan; he is head of the works group control mission. “ We are now on block 3 and we are going towards block 1. Where the work is more advanced. We will see the work on the metal frame which has been completed with the roof, everything is complete, but also the paths with the paving, the roofing of the shops, with the electrical work. And there is an evolution “, he said.
« Not everyone will have a place at the large Bouaké market »
To date, traders have settled in the streets adjacent to the construction site, making traffic difficult in the streets of Bouaké. They will be dislodged following the opening of the big market. Thus, everyone is trying to acquire a place in the large market, indicates Jean-Michel Konan Attien, responsible for the marketing aspect at the municipality. “ In any case, we have regarding 8 000 places at the large market, there are more than 15,000 traders in Bouaké. It goes without saying that not everyone will have a place at the large Bouaké market. I think that it is in this context that for some time, the town hall has been rehabilitating or rebuilding certain peripheral markets so that certain traders who will not have space at the large market can go to one of these local markets there to also be able to have places ».
Before rent, you have to pay between 350,000 francs and 6 million francs in doorstep fees to be able to move into a store depending on its size and location. A sum that this dry food trader cannot currently pay: “ I want to settle down, but it is in relation to the money on the market. As the price is a little high, there, if we don’t have the money where we are going to go, we ourselves wonder that “, she explains.
For a year and a half, the site has alternated opening and closing periods for registrations, disconcerting traders who are struggling to obtain the right information. Touré Namméssé sells vegetables and ingredients for sauces. “ Yes, we already have the license, there is now the online application, we are asked to try later, because there are several online applications. (They say that) we can’t deal with all of this at the same time. They say wait, it’s saturated “, she says.
At least 5,570 traders have already secured a location, this is the case of Fadiga Mariam, a sweets trader. “ I had an appointment, I kept the appointment, I paid the first installment “, she says.
The large Bouaké market should open its doors at the end of summer 2024 and will become an important source of financing for the Bouaké town hall, the contracting authority on this project.
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