How Timber shed is attracting development to Abuja community

There is the story of a few men who relocated to the area and started the venture. Today it thrives, attracting other businesses in the area. Like a resident says, perhaps the story of Gudaaba is indeed incomplete without the timber shed narrative. The timber shed is a typical example of a venture that has […]

There is the story of a few men who relocated to the area and started the venture. Today it thrives, attracting other businesses in the area. Like a resident says, perhaps the story of Gudaaba is indeed incomplete without the timber shed narrative.
The timber shed is a typical example of a venture that has led to the growth of others in Gudaaba community. Located strategically off airport road, on the major route to Kuje town, it has become the life- wire of the slowly growing community. By the roadside, furniture, such as chairs, wardrobes and mattresses are displayed, some mere shacks. Gradually, shops selling car parts and other items aimed to capture the attention of motorists sprang up. But this development did not begin in a day.
Relaxing in a truck, Sadiq Ajayi, a former chairman of the timber shed, smiles and narrates that it all started years with a few men passionate about timber. Their number slowly grew and the Kuje Area Council soon became worried that their activities were creating “a kind of environmental hazard.”
Also, there was a problem concerning the plot of land where they operated. This was where the council quickly intervened. There was urgent need to relocate them to a more favourable place. Suddenly, having a clearer vision the men got their business registered at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and were given the place at Gudaaba to thrive. And they have. “We are the only timber shed in the whole of Kuje Council Area,” Ajayi boasts. 
Most days there are trucks offloading and loading varieties of timber, including mahogany and bamboo. By 8 am men and women settle beneath their sheds – which are numbered for easy identification – ready for the day’s sales. When a customer walks in they pay attention to the nature of the order.
A full load implies 150 unsliced log of wood, which costs N150, 000, John Audu explains. “We give them the exact size they demand after calculating the number,” he says, adding that the slicing machine is used to achieve any specification. But not everyone buys the full load. So each unsliced piece goes for N1, 000, or N9, 000 for a customer who is a registered member of the ‘timber team.’ Their customers often have a variety of needs, which may be soft wood for furniture making or ceilings and hard for roofing. 
Audu and his partner, David Kure – who is the present chairman of the shed – depend on those who go to villages to source for timber and deliver to them by truck. This could be within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) or from the western part of the country, particularly planks.   
Across the road there are piles of bamboo. A man works tirelessly to put them in order during the early hours of the morning. As far as he is concerned, the story of Gudaaba is incomplete without the timber shed. “We came here in 2009 when none of these businesses existed,” he says and points where granites sit on the other side of the road, a block industry, and shops where bags of cement are sold. Close by Peter Dominic sits on a bench before slabs of marble, another example of a business attracted to the spot by the timber shed.  
Behind the shed, Chibuike Asagaa sells building materials. He is not alone. Overtime several shops have opened around the area, selling items they predict any timber customer will desire. Like many others John learned his trade from a master who later gave him severance pay to set up his own business. “That was how I came to rent a shop here,” Asagaa reveals.
There is a laid down rule on how people become members of this timber association. Benjamin Orji had worked for another man in Lugbe a long time before he was ‘settled.’ With a registration fee of N150, 000 (less than what he would have been charged at Lugbe) and about N200, 000 to start-up, he was in business. “But when you have not worked for another and simply come to begin your business here you pay N300, 000 to register,” he intimates, adding that if one has the money he or she can set up a business,  if not, there is the opportunity of working for another person for some years before “they settle you.”
Behind the shed is a slowly evolving market place with a welding shop, a restaurant, provisions stores, and grocery sellers among others. Abel John, a welder, had seen the opportunity of a virgin environment and now owns a business, welding gates, iron roofs and so on.  
Like the timber shed, the furniture makers were also encouraged to move to the area mainly because it is by the roadside in a scantily populated area. However, development continues to take place in the form of new structures and businesses on a road that increasingly becomes busy. With the recent bomb blast in Kuje town, a long line of vehicles present the question of whether the road is wide enough.