A HISTORY OF GBAJIMBA MARKET OF GUMA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BENUE STATE

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A HISTORY OF GBAJIMBA MARKET OF GUMA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF BENUE STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Traders are often accused by politicians and the media of operating cartels, but anecdotal evidence and our own field experience in Africa (Porter 1994, 1995, 1998, 2001; Lyon 1999, 2000, 2001) suggests that, although monopolistic control can be exerted, it tends to be confined to specific parts of the marketing chain. An important recent study led by Fafchamps (2001) comparing Benin and Malawi confirms this view in those countries: they document the ‘absence of speculative, inter-seasonal storage for the overwhelming majority of traders, and the relatively low returns to storage in general’ (Fafchamps 2001:38). Traders obviously provide a crucial service and they are often investing their capital in a high-risk environment where, arguably, returns should be commensurate with the risks involved. This is, of course, even more true of farmers themselves, and evidently a balance needs to be struck between the conflicting interests of the producer and the trader which allows both to profit if food marketing is to develop and be improved. Fafchamps (2001) argues that rudimentary business practices found in Benin and Malawi can be largely blamed on transaction risk. Since payment takes place at delivery, this precludes invoicing and payment by cheque and complicates accounting. ‘Business networks have developed as a partial palliative to these problems, but they are insufficient to eliminate them’ (ibid p.39).

The positive contribution of traders in providing an essential service to urban consumers has not been adequately analysed, perhaps in some cases because it is taken as ‘read’ by policy makers and analysts, in the same way as the role of other service providers who are operating for profit. However, there has been long-standing antipathy among many policy makers in post-independence Africa to small-scale trading, in particular, as evidenced by the innumerable cases of harassment reported in the African press and by the derogatory terms often used to describe traders and their trading activities. In part this can be explained by the disorganised nature of informal trade and the difficulties it presents as such for regulators in areas such as hoarding, unfair pricing and even city traffic flow. Dennis (1987) refers to numerous incidents during Nigeria’s economic crisis in 1984 when soldiers went into markets and beat women traders to force them to sell their goods at lower prices. Given the constraints so often described in studies of marketing in Nigeria (Smith and Luttrel 1994; Porter 1994a; Lyon 2001), the ability of the traders to move produce from millions of disparate farms to millions of consumers in Nigeria and internationally is astonishing. Within these difficult conditions traders have built up the skills and capital necessary to perform these services.

Statement of the problem

There may have been previous researches in this subject. This work gives further explanations and analysis in ahistory of gbajimba market of guma local government area of benue state

Objectives of the study
To understand the impact of gbajimba market in the socio-economic and socio-political development of guma local government
To understand the relationship between the activities of gbajimba market and economic growth and development of guma local government area.

Research questions
What is the impact of gbajimba market in the socio-economic and socio-political development of guma local government
What is the relationship between the activities of gbajimba market and economic growth and development of guma local government area.