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By Brown Chimezie
The President of Alaba International Market Association Electronics (IMAE), Chief Camilus Amajuoyi has given reasons why he was able to give the biggest electronics market in West Africa a new face within six months of assuming office.
Speaking in an interview with sun newspaper, he said that with the help of his able executive and support from the entire traders, the market is now wearing a new look.
In this interview, he also spoke on other issues.
Excerpt:
How did you become the president of Alaba International Market Association Electronics?
Well, my emergence was not an easy one as the position was keenly contested. But before I contested for the office of the president of Alaba International Market Association Electronics, I have served in several other capacities and that helped the traders to see my capacity. I served as the 1st Vice chairman to the immediate past chairman, Evangelist Paulinus Ugochukwu.
When you were campaigning, you said that if you win, you would change the face of Alaba. Have you been able to do that?
My campaign promise was to improve on the achievements of the previous administration, which I was part of. The past administration made some progress in the market and I promised that I would continue from where it stopped .The former chairman was focused on rebranding the image of Alaba international market and he did a lot along that line. The administration built a clinic, bought fire fighting vehicle and did a lot of other things and as you know, government is continuum, so I have to continue from where he stopped.
What are your achievements in the last six months?
When I was campaigning the motto of my campaign was the New Face of Alaba International Market and within six months of my administration coming on board, we are working our talk. Some of the things that I have done include, sustaining the clearing of the front line of the market to allow free flow of persons and goods in and out of the market. Water is one of the biggest problems that we are having in Alaba. But within six months of our coming on board we have sunk four boreholes. Apart from that we have resuscitated existing but non-functional boreholes. So now access to clean water which was a big challenge before has been solved. We now have water for the women to cook, for our personal use and for our fire fighting truck. Another thing is that before we came on board accessing our secretariat especially during rainy season used to be problematic because of persistence flooding but now that has been laid to rest as we have new set of interlock that will now be causing water to flow into the drainage instead of flooding the entrance to the secretariat. There are now peace and order in the market and in the entire Alaba community because we are carrying the leaders of the other market associations along. We are also working harmoniously with Ojo local government chairman, Nigeria Police and the other relevant security agencies. If I begin to talk about the things we have done in the last six months, you may not go today.
What are you doing in the area of security which is very important in a large market such as this?
Well, security is one of the key components of my campaign. I prioritize security more than any other thing because we have billions of dollars investment in Alaba International market. As a way to guard against burglary and breaking and entry we have given out instructions on the types of doors that traders would be using .We have gone out to ensure that every trader has an identity card, including even the POS operators. This is a way of knowing who is who in the market. As I said earlier, I am working in harmony with the officers and men of the Nigeria Police, Nigeria Army and the other relevant security agencies. We are also talking to the traders that they should speak out anything they notice strange things or security threats in and around the market.
What are you doing the image of the market
We are seriously working on the image of Alaba International market. Alaba international market is a very big brand. In fact, it is one of the biggest brands in the world being the biggest electronics market in the whole of Africa. So, we are in collaboration with Standards Organizations of Nigeria(SON).They are ensuring that every product that enters Alaba International is of high quality. On our own, we have a taskforce that goes round the market to make sure that nobody is selling substandard or fake electronics. The idea is, if any importer escapes SON, it will not escape our own task force.
In the past, people regard Alaba as a haven for fake and substandard products but from the last administration, we started to checkmate that and to God be the glory, we are succeeding. So, whatever you buy in Alaba today is of a high quality.
