Alade Market Concessionaire Bemoans Threat to $50 Million Cash Flow

Master Reality International Concepts Limited, the concessionaire for the redevelopment of Alade Market, Allen, Ikeja Lagos State, on Sunday, August 2 lamented a great threat to $50 million it obtained in 2013 to redevelop the market to an ultra-modern shopping mall. According to the concessionaire, the market redevelopment, valued about N6.5 billion on August 17, 2010 when the concession agreement was signed, was delayed due to refusal of market women to relocate to an alternative market. The Managing Director of the company, Lai Omotola, expressed concern over the delay at a session with journalists in Maryland after he took control of the market, which the Ikeja Local Government ceded to him five years ago.

He disclosed that a foreign cash-inflow of $50 million, which he obtained in 2013, was under grave threat, citing the astronomical increase in the exchange rate. He explained that the exchange rate was the pegged at N175 to a dollar, thereby lamenting that the exchange rate had skyrocketed to N195 to a dollar within the same period. Omotola stressed that the declining value of the naira was “a serious concern to him, adding that the redevelopment posed great threat to the fast-tracked delivery of the project.