Rain forces businesses to halt at Computer Village

By Charles Mgbolu

The heavy rains that has been witnessed in the past few weeks have forced business inside the nation’s largest ICT market; the Computer Village to grind literally to a halt.

Business transactions worth several millions of naira have either been postponed or canceled following the persistent showers that struck as heavy thunderstorms and grew quickly into massive floods.

Some of these floods had built in the Ikeja environs; the location where the computer village is; washing through the market to cause untold mayhem as rickety outdoor shelters and wooden shacks that once housed several computer and phone accessories have either collapsed or washed completely away.

When Vanguard Hitech visited the market recently after a long downpour, it wasn’t the popular computer village that remained. Many of the shops had been under lock and key with eye witnesses giving accounts of shop owners basically dismantling wooden canopy tents and fleeing. before the rains descended

There had also been cases of leaking roofs in shops on the top floors of the market that had allowed rain water to slowly seep in and accumulate. Some shops where the roof condition had been too bad had forced occupants to evacuate temporarily.

Only traders who had shops on the tared roads in the market with deep flood gutters running in front had escaped the flood mayhem. The inside of the market, jam packed with shops had trapped flood water that rose in some cases above the ankles.

Not surprisingly, many would not speak to this reporter but the few that did said that the drag in business following the rains had long been expected.

Barrister Paul Alozie CEO of Digitpoint computers said “We have been in this market for years now and so we are not surprised that the rain is making business dull a bit. Unfortunately things will not improve much until after this raining season but we have survived it in the past, this one will not kill us”

Another trader who identified himself simply as Tunde said “The rain is not really the cause for the slow business. We have been in this condition long before the rains came. At first, we thought it was because of the elections, but the elections have come and gone and business is still dull. I don’t really know what is the reason behind the drag in business but it is not because of the rains.