‘Four New Market Buildings for Omega’

-- President Weah promises

Published August 2, 2021

President George Weah, in fulfilment of his promise to prepare the Omega Market for sellers’ convenience, has mandated the Liberia Agency for Community Empowerment (LACE) and the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) to construct four new buildings in the area.

President Weah gave the instruction during his unannounced visit to the market apparently after seeing the wetland that the sellers have been battling to develop and sell.

At first, he had instructed the acting Minister of Public Works, Ruth Coker-Collins, to get the Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) technical team to assist MPW backfill the wetland with sand to make the place decent and better for the marketeers.

According to Presidential Press Secretary Isaac Solo Kelgbeh, President Weah has declared the Omega-market as an emergency that needs urgent attention. “He has mandated LACE to work with the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) to construct four additional buildings within 21 days.” he says.

Kelbeh said the committee that was set up by President Weah to clean up market buildings ahead of the Independence Day celebration will work with LACE to ensure that they meet up with the deadline.

Pepci Quiwu Yeke,  LACE Executive Director, confirmed that his institution has been mandated by President Weah to construct four new market structures. “We already have those contractors that should be constructing the four market buildings. We started like two days ago.  So, there will be four additional markets built in the Omega area to be able to shelter those that will be leaving the Red Light.” 

Yeke said  the new buildings  will have toilets, warehouses, and office space. “So we are now making available 4 additional acres of land in four different locations in Omega,” he said.

According to him,  Most of the work is done at night, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. to give the sellers ample time to sell. “The design will not be the same. The one that was initially built will be far bigger than what we intend to build now. The first one we built was on five acres of land.”

He said the new structure is to create additional shelter for the sellers, noting that in the Red Light market, not many market buildings were there, but people were selling from privately owned stores and residences. 

According to the LACE boss, the Omega Market, “when it rains, they stand in it but hide their goods which are not even secured.  So they are in the open field. So we are just trying to build additional four market buildings, plus the two buildings we already have, to make six buildings that will accommodate them.” 

He further explained that when the buildings are completed the government will allocate more areas for stores, shops and encourage private business owners to build stores, shops, and warehouses to accommodate the marketeers.

Marketeers at the Omega market behind the Coca-Cola factory community have been encountering difficulties since their relocation from Red Light on July 10, 2021.

Many sellers, as the situation stands, are yet to secure a selling spot. Moreover, there are limited warehouses to store their goods while away, and the area lacks toilet facilities for marketeers.  

The Liberia Marketing Association (LMA), which is responsible for distributing spaces in the area, only secured the two buildings for those marketeers that were already registered with them, leaving the majority of the petty traders to spread across the wetland to sell.

The wetland is an open area where the marketeers built makeshift tables to sell but, when it rains, the area gets flooded thus making it difficult for them to sell.