• With estimated 19,400 traders, state and non-state actors profit n4.7b yearly
• ‘If you don’t pay, they snatch your goods, destroy some’

Across various markets in Cross River, women grapple with not only the burden of multiple levies imposed by both government officials and non-state agents, but also the threat of disease arising from poor sanitary conditions in markets. Despite paying variety of taxes, market women in the People’s Paradise cannot access clean water. This pervasive issue of multiple taxations has led to a cycle of exploitation and poverty, with traders forced to pay exorbitant sums simply to conduct their business TINA AGOSI TODO writes.

In the bustling Marian Market in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, many traders face numerous challenges as they navigate a risky environment. A story of struggle and perseverance unravels as market women such as Mrs. Blessing Iqwo, a tomato and pepper seller, deal with these challenges.

Her painful experience exemplifies dangers in the market that put women at risk. The pregnant Iqwo did not anticipate that using a public toilet would result in an infection that led to the loss of her second pregnancy in its second trimester in 2021.

“I was pressed and needed to use the toilet,” she recounted. “Two days later, I started feeling itches around my private part. I couldn’t use antibiotics, because of the pregnancy and was using only hot water.”
Unfortunately, she eventually suffered miscarriage, and the hospital attributed it to a toilet-borne infection. Her ordeal highlights the dire consequences of inadequate infrastructure, despite multiple – and even parallel levies enforced by thugs, which only stopped recently – with repercussions extending beyond her tragedy to affect countless others.
According to data from National Union of Shops and Distributive Employees (NUSDE), there are approximately 5,500 traders at the Marian Market in Calabar Municipal Council; 7,000 traders at the Watt Market in Calabar South Council, and 6,000 traders at the Ikom Main Market, in Ikom Council while the Okonoyom Market in Akpabuyo Council has an estimated 300 traders. It was not possible to get the figures for the 8th Mile Market.

In Calabar, market women contend with being harassed and intimidated by agents of government, which fails to provide a good working environment for them to do business, including access to water and toilet facilities.
Over the years, the level of extortion under the guise of market tolls and taxation has pushed many out of business.“I usually take my goods on credit and pay after selling them. And when I don’t sell as much as expected, the ‘matching ground’ collectors keep coming. Sometimes, we don’t even meet our target after paying for tickets.

“Before now, we used to pay up to N700 daily, and on Saturdays, we pay up to N1,600 to different groups but since January, we started paying N200 daily while on Saturdays, we pay N400,” the trader continued, pointing out that illegal levies by non-state actors only stopped at the beginning of this year.

According to The Guardian checks, an average trader contributes N5,100 weekly while the monthly payments amount to N20,400. With the estimated 19,400 traders in the four markets, both the government and the thugs rake in the sum of N395,760,000 monthly and N4,749,120,000 in a year.
Traders in several markets visited by The Guardian are being forced by council agents to pay morning and evening levies. These agents, who move in groups, demand between N850 to N1,000 daily from each roadside trader. They are always aggressive to the women.

Although Governor Bassey Otu is believed to have reduced the excessive levies collected by council agents and tried to end the illegal collections by non-state agents, findings show that most markets have only reduced their revenue collections to N500.

The councils claimed they collect N50 daily while taxing N200 weekly. Contrary to that claim, our investigation – based on interviews and receipts cited by reporter – revealed that the traders still pay at least N200 daily and N500 on Saturdays.

The Nigerian informal sector has been a major contributor to the nation’s economy, and accounts for a significant portion of employment and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), with most of its major drivers being street traders, subsistence farmers, and service providers such as hairdressers, taxi drivers, and carpenters. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that the nation’s informal sector accounted for 65 per cent of the country’s GDP in 2017.

In 2015, the government of Cross River State implemented a policy aimed at providing tax rebates to the poor and vulnerable. To further consolidate this policy, the Cross River Internal Revenue Service (CRIRS) issued a public statement regarding tax exemption Law No.13. The law excludes from paying tax, all persons whose monthly income is below N50,000, including petty traders, wheelbarrow pushers, taxi drivers, and other similar categories of workers.

To demonstrate its commitment to this policy, the state government established an agency to enforce the tax legislation.A few years later, despite these efforts backed up by the existence of an enforcement agency, multiple and unfair taxation is still on the rise.
In Ikom and Akpabuyo, the situation is similar to what traders are experiencing in other markets, though slightly different in the pattern of collection.

Frustrated by the multiple levies, Mama Ayu, a palm fruit seller in Ikom Main Market, told TheGuardian, “if you don’t pay, they snatch your goods, in the process, destroy some. They take it to their office before you get it back; they ask you to pay N5,000 for bail.
“The other day, I came with just N2,000 worth of palm fruits to sell, as usual, they came to collect money for the ticket, I begged the woman to allow me for that day and pay the next day, but the ticketing officer refused. He carried my palm fruits and my daughter’s umbrella, I couldn’t raise N5,000 to collect goods of N2,000, that was how I lost that money.”

At Okonoyom Market in Akpabuyo, 17-year-old Etido Peter hawks vegetables called Editan in Efik language in a transparent container. She moved in with her grandmother and two siblings when they lost their parents in a ghastly motor accident two years ago. Her grandmother prepares the leaves every market day for her to hawk.

“Before now, thugs used to harass traders in this market but now, the market is calm since the new government of Prince Otu. The only thing we have here is people that collect N100 for tickets daily, but the ticket collectors still intimidate and harass you when you refuse to pay,” the teenager said.

Despite the burden of multiple taxes these market women bear, they complain of having to contend with poor hygiene and wonder where the taxes they pay go.
ItoroEkanem, also a trader at Marian Market, was relieved when a part of the heap of debris, a public health nuisance, at the centre of the market, was cleared.

Ekanem had experienced rashes all over her body the year before due to her exposure to the heap of wastes at the market, she said, according to her doctor.”It was that bad,” she said.

The heap discourages sales, but sellers are still forced to pay levies, making their lives difficult, she said, adding, “The clearing of wastes was what a new government normally does but go there and check, it has started gathering again.”

Ekanem is not alone. Anietie Idongesit, who sells clothes at the Marian Market, almost closed down owing to the stench coming from the heap of waste.

She said, “for the past years, right from the time of LiyelImoke, we have been suffering here. Debris will just cover everywhere. Sometimes, when you come to the shop in the morning, you will see debris poured in front of your shop. It was that bad, not just that, the odor stinks that sometimes, customers don’t want to stay long to look at what you are selling. Vehicles and wheelbarrows would be struggling for space, just because the waste had covered the road.”

Mama Ayu’s petty business is less than $3. She holds on to it just to keep food on the table for her family. Her profit can’t buy a dress worth N5,000 from what she gets “and to worsen the matter, we can’t use the toilet facility for free.”

“How much do you make daily that you will have to pay N150 each time you use the toilet?” She queried. “We don’t have a water facility here in the market yet we are paying so much to sell in the market. Every day, I pay up to N550, and on Mondays; I pay up to N650 for levies, when you ask them to come later for the money, they snatch your measurement container and customer bags.”

To ease herself without toilet infection, Mama Ayu must go back to her house, spending N200.

A United Nations (UN) report shows that 30 percent of illnesses in the developing world are linked to inadequate water and sanitation. This is the plight of traders like Ekanem, Blessing and Mama Ayu, despite paying so much to sell in markets.

It is not different elsewhere.
At Watt Market of Calabar South Council traders similarly have to endure multiple payments despite not having access to adequate water, hygiene, and sanitation facilities.
“Some days, I make N1,000 gain, some days N1,500 or N2,000,” said a Watt Market vegetable seller, Grace Ambai.“But every day, we pay up to N800 or N1,000 to different people for sanitation, security, local government, community, and space.”

Others in the market like Nne, an elderly woman, who sells okra lamented that the multiple levies eat away at profits, leaving her unable to save.
“Those boys, sometimes, behave as if they don’t have a mother or grandmother,” she said, decrying the disrespect and harassment she has faced over the years.
Manyo Ojong, who sells onions at Ikom Main Market, said she pays N50 for ticket and N500 for space daily “but will still pay N150 to use the toilet facility anytime I’m pressed.”

Ojong’s neighbour, Anita Agbo, who sells fairly used clothes, said she fears her business might close anytime soon due to the multiple payments.
Goal Six of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 specifically targets ensuring access to Water and Sanitation for all, including marketplaces.
Water Sanitation Hygiene (WASH), advocate, Abenmire Adi, said, “it is important that these taxes are channeled into places including the provision of potable water and sanitation for market women. Just like we speak for improving Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene in schools, offices, and public places we must have these facilities in the marketplaces.”

The Revenue Officer of Calabar Municipal Council, Ignatius Asuquo, insisted that N50 is the official daily rate and N200 for Saturdays. He said that the council does not have anything to do with the illegal levies or multiple taxations forced on market traders.

“The local government is in charge of sanitation in the markets and the environment around the market. What we collect from women is N50 a day; N25 is for cleaning the market and N25 for toll. Then for Saturday, only N200; it’s not up to N500.

“We collect N200 from them on Saturdays because the job of sweeping the market is so tedious, and the N25 payment they receive will not cover the maintenance of the wheelbarrows, shovels and other equipment they use for cleaning. If they are claiming that they pay N200 weekly and N500 on Saturdays, they have not informed me. If they do report it to me, I will send my staff to verify and take necessary action,” he stated.

He blamed the former revenue agent, who oversaw the collection for the past three years until January.“He was behind all these illegal taxation on women in markets. What he was collecting was outside our normal toll and sanitation.”

We have given that job to another person,” Asuquo said.

“The rubbish in the market is the duty of the waste management, it’s not the council because there is a percentage taken from the state through council allocation for waste management, so, it is not our duty to clear the waste but if the state government stop removing the allocation on waste management, we will evacuate all those things without any delay.”

The Union Chairman of Marian Market, AsuquoEtim, was a victim of intimidation and harassment by thugs, who had been assigned by some political actors in disguise as revenue agents or market managers.
He said he and his colleagues were beaten by illegal collection agents who the government has not been able to stop.
The focal person, Cross River Chapter of the Association of Nigerian Women Business Network, Mrs. Ndoma-Egba, said on several occasions, the association has advocated for an end to multiple taxation on market women.

Proposed Legislation
A Cross River State House of Assembly member, Stanley Nsemo, who spoke with TheGuardian, said the state legislature recently passed a resolution following a petition from the National Union of Shop and Distributive Employees (NUSDE) from the IkaIka Market (Marian market) on illegal levies, harassment, and intimidation on market traders by revenue agents.

“We were able to push to some level of sanity in the market; the tax system in the market has reduced from about N1,000 or so to about N300, N200 every day. The sanitation in the market has improved, thanks to the Commissioner for Works. Some days ago, we were in Abuja in a meeting and we have resolved to deal with anyone who tried to impose unnecessary hardship on the people. For the first time in five years, sanity has returned to the market, from this we will go to other markets in the local government to flush out those that are making life unbearable for the common man,” Nsemo stated.

According to a tax expert, Williams Itorok, there has been a significant issue of multiple taxations in Cross River for long, adding this is not due to any intentional action by the government, but rather because of the political situation in the region.

Itorok alleged that the government has used these illegal taxes to pay off individuals he described as political jobbers.

Itorok, a member of Tax Justice and Governance, Cross River State, said according to taxation laws, market levies are not supposed to be paid daily, “except when you are parking your car.”
“If you have a designated space for trading, then the traders should pay monthly or yearly, that is what is provided for in the tax law,” Itorok said.