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Nigeria: Urbanisation chokes commerce

KANO: Shop owners in Nigeria's northern Kano state told IRIN a government plan to wipe out illegal businesses has thousands of small business owners floundering in a region where population density and unemployment are among the highest nationwide.

20 Feb 2009

“I was not given any notice to vacate,” said Sani Abdullahi, who told IRIN he sold household goods out of a stall for the past eight years in Kano city, the state capital. “More than a dozen armed policemen accompanied by officials from KNUPDA (Kano Urban Planning and Development Authority) stormed my stall and pulled it down and all my wares. I have lost everything. I do not know where to start from.”

KNUPDA said that since 14 January, 2009 it has demolished 3,000 of 10,000 illegal businesses in the city earmarked for destruction by the end of September. The agency initially targeted the most packed parts of Kano's business district.

Read the full article on IRIN.