COUNTING LOSSES: THE ECONOMIC HARDSHIP FACING MARKET TRADERS IN ENUGU METROPOLIS AND HOW THEY ARE COPING
Walk through the aisles of Ogbete Main Market along Ogui Road in Enugu on any given morning in 2026, and the evidence of economic strain is visible in ways that statistics alone cannot fully capture. Stall owners sit behind goods they cannot sell at prices customers can no longer afford. Conversations between traders circle around the same themes: rising costs, dwindling patronage, debts owed to suppliers, mounting tax demands, and the daily arithmetic of survival. For the market traders of Enugu metropolis, including those at Ogbete Main Market, Abakpa-Nike Market, New Haven Market along Chime Avenue, Kenyatta Market in Uwani and Garriki Market in Enugu South, the economic crisis that has gripped Nigeria since the removal of the fuel subsidy in May 2023 has not eased into relief. It has simply become the permanent condition of doing business.
The statistics confirm what the traders already know in their bones. In its Consumer Price Index report released on May 16, 2026, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that Nigeria’s headline inflation had risen to 15.69% in April 2026, up from 15.38% in March 2026 and significantly lower than the 26.82% recorded in April 2025. More devastating for Enugu in particular, the NBS data showed that food inflation on a year-on-year basis was highest in Enugu State at 32.67%, making it the worst hit state in the entire country for food price increases in April 2026, ahead of Kwara at 30.77% and Adamawa at 30.14%. Food and non-alcoholic beverages were the largest single contributor to the national headline inflation, accounting for 6.40 percentage points of the overall rate. For market traders in Ogbete, Abakpa-Nike and New Haven markets who deal primarily in food commodities, this figure is not an abstraction. It is the daily reality of watching customers walk away because they cannot afford what is on display.
The price surge has been building for years. In November 2023, traders at Enugu’s major markets were already raising alarm with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). At Abakpa-Nike Market, a trader identified as Ugonna Ebo, who deals in plastics, said constant price fluctuations were strangling his business, noting that a quality plastic bucket which previously sold at N500 had risen to N1,200. A food seller at Ogbete Main Market, speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in November 2023, said a 50-kilogram bag of foreign rice was selling at between N55,000 and N60,000 at the time, while local rice had risen to between N42,000 and N45,000. Those prices, alarming as they were in 2023, have since climbed further as inflation compounded over 2024 and into 2026. At New Haven Market, a provision store owner named Chidera Ani said at the same period that she was on the verge of shutting her shop entirely because she could no longer cope with soaring prices.
By February 2026, Enugu recorded the highest month-on-month food inflation increase in Nigeria at 5.92%, according to NBS data released in March 2026. The NBS attributed the continuing surge to price increases in garri, yam tubers, fresh pepper, beans, crayfish, tomatoes, cassava tubers and beef, a list that reads like the shopping list of every household in Enugu State.
Beyond inflation, the hardship for Enugu’s market traders has been compounded by aggressive revenue collection by government agents pursuing Governor Mbah’s ambitious target of growing the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) from $4.4 billion to $30 billion. The Enugu State Internal Revenue Service (ESIRS), headed by its Executive Chairman Mr. Emmanuel Nnamani, reported in February 2026 that Enugu State’s IGR grew from N26.8 billion in 2022 to N37.4 billion in 2023, then to N180.5 billion in 2024, and further to N406.77 billion in 2025, representing a 125% growth from 2024 to 2025 alone. The state has projected a target of N870 billion in IGR for 2026. To achieve these numbers, uniformed and non-uniformed revenue officials from the State Internal Revenue Board, the Enugu Geographical Information System (ENGIS), the Enugu Capital Territory Development Authority, the Housing Development Authority, the Waste Management Authority, and local council revenue offices have been deployed across the state in unprecedented numbers.
For traders who can barely cover their overheads, the experience of multiple revenue officials descending on their stalls has been deeply distressing. Mrs. Monica Ezema, a foodstuffs seller at Ikpa Market in Nsukka, told reporters in April 2026 that traders did not necessarily object to paying taxes but felt betrayed because Governor Mbah had promised good market roads, water and power supply during his 2023 campaigns. Three years after voting him into office, she said, traders were paying levies they could not afford while still seeing no direct improvements in their market conditions. The Board of Internal Revenue began sealing shops across the state in April 2026, and traders at Ogbete Main Market staged a protest that turned violent, requiring police intervention to restore order. The Enugu State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Dan Ndukwe, confirmed in a statement that the initial peaceful protest was hijacked and that full-scale investigations had been initiated.
The situation for the most vulnerable traders, those without lock-up shops, including hawkers, vegetable sellers, sachet water vendors and wheelbarrow pushers, had been particularly acute. These petty traders, who barely take home enough to feed their families, were being subjected to daily levies of N200 by local government revenue collectors, a burden that drew widespread outrage from traditional rulers, local government chairmen and community president generals across the state.
The complaints reached the state government, and on Tuesday, April 8, 2026, the Secretary to the State Government, Professor Chidiebere Onyia, announced at a stakeholders meeting held at the Old Government Lodge in Enugu that Governor Mbah had directed the immediate suspension of all daily tolls imposed on petty traders. The governor’s directive specified that hawkers, vegetable sellers, sachet water vendors and other traders without lock-up shops were considered vulnerable and should not be made to pay any levy, whether by government or community groups. A taskforce was established at the local government level to enforce the suspension and ensure compliance. Okechukwu Edeh, Chairman of the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) in Enugu State, commended the decision as compassionate and assured that council chairmen would enforce it strictly.
The market demolitions have added a separate layer of loss to an already burdened trading community. On May 22, 2024, the Enugu State Government ordered traders at sections of Ogige Market in Nsukka to vacate, citing the construction of an ultra-modern bus terminal. The demolition also affected Holy Ghost, Garriki and Abakpa markets in Enugu metropolis. Ngozi Ozioko, Chairperson of Ogige Market, confirmed that nearly 3,000 traders were severely affected and were given only 72 hours notice with no designated relocation site provided. In July 2025, fresh anxiety gripped traders at Garriki Market, also known as Afor Awkunanaw Market in Enugu South, when the Local Government Chairman Hon. Caleb Ani indicated that further demolition was being considered to construct a tarred road through the market. By April 2026, at the 37th Enugu International Trade Fair, the Enugu Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (ECCIMA) publicly acknowledged that the harsh economic climate had negatively affected turnout and commercial activity at the fair. The body announced early-bird discounts for the 38th Enugu International Trade Fair tentatively scheduled from March 12 to March 22, 2027, as a measure to encourage participation.
Despite the pressure, traders across Enugu’s markets are adapting in remarkable ways. Many have drastically reduced stock sizes to minimise losses from unsold goods. Others have formed informal cooperative credit groups to pool resources and cushion individual hardship. Food traders are increasingly sourcing directly from farmers in rural Enugu communities during harvest seasons to eliminate middlemen and reduce costs. Younger traders have taken their businesses partially online using WhatsApp and social media platforms to reach customers who visit markets less frequently than before.
The economic story of Enugu’s market traders in 2026 is ultimately one of extraordinary resilience facing structural pressure from multiple directions: national inflation at 15.69%, food prices rising at 32.67% year-on-year in Enugu, aggressive revenue drives, market demolitions without adequate compensation, and a federal tax reform law that took effect in January 2026 consolidating over 60 taxes into fewer statutes with new compliance requirements. For the men and women who show up every morning at Ogbete, Abakpa, New Haven, Kenyatta, Garriki and markets across the Enugu metropolis, counting their losses and finding ways to keep going is not a choice. It is the only option they have.
Obinwannem Igbo News | May 18, 2026
