By Moses Okorie
One of the chairmanship contestants in the March 28 Apo Urban Market Traders election and the Managing Director of Alberto International Agency Limited, Mr. Albert Iwuchukwu popularly known as Alberto International has promised to open up the market to various business opportunities, if elected.
Speaking with NationsPride on Thursday at his shop in Apo Urban Market, Abuja, the chairmanship hopeful said he would liaise with the government to seek for approval to open the market’s back gate to ensure easy access for customers.
He also said he would meet some of the commercial banks to come and operate at the already existing banking hall provided by market, and in so doing, the market would experience influx of customers, which would have a ripple effect on the various businesses carried out at the market.
“One thing we consider very vital that will help boost this market is opening the access gate from behind so that those that are driving through the express would know this market is actually operational, and they can even come in and make patronage.
“We already have a banking hall in this market. We have the intention of also meeting some of the top bank executives to make them understand that this is a win-win situation; when you come in here, there is security, there is space and there are customers.
“Once a bank is here, other people banking with them will definitely come in. And by so doing, they will see there is a market here. Even the traders here will also have a close bank to transact with”, Iwuchukwu said.
He also promised to ensure that the market comes on board in digital space so that people there can see it and come around to do business.
Speaking on some of his interventions in the market, despite not being in leadership position, and what motivated him to vie for chairmanship position, Alberto said when there was blackouts at the market for over four months, those volunteering leadership almost gave up, but he, alongside some others made effort to see that the light was restored.
“We took the bull by the horn to see that the light was restored. In the course of those things, spanning almost a year now, we’ve gathered quite a number of experience and information as regards this market with respect to the issues in the market, possible solutions and the possible collaborators that you can run to find solutions to them”, he said.
He also promised to make welfare of his members paramount during his tenure and serve as voice of the voiceless to anyone whose rights are trampled upon.
On the formation of the traders’ association at Apo Urban Market, Alberto mentioned that it was himself, Abuja Printz, Zamani and some others that took it upon themselves to ensure that the association became a reality.
“You can’t talk about the union without my input. Myself, Abuja Printz and some other individuals like Zamani and co. We took it upon ourselves, visited different markets to study how their own associations work, and then we came up with a lot of inputs that resulted to the formation of this current union”.
Alberto International deals on shoe and bagmaking materials and its accessories.