Mile 16 Market : A Peripheral Food Centre

The Agricultural Infrastructure and Value Chain Development Project (AIVDP), in a bid to reduce poverty and improve on the livelihoods of farmers and rural communities in the Buea municipality, constructed a community market in the Mile 16 (Bolifamba) locality.  Coming at a time when the community was faced with economic privation due to the on-going socio-political crisis, the community was in need of a structure where they could conveniently sell their farm produce.  
The prevailing socio-political crisis had taken a bitter toll on merchants. “After sitting in the sun and in the rain for many years, we, vendors, would have to discard buckets of rice, beans, and even dried spices because they were wet and fermenting under exposure. Last year, I lost a bucket of beans worth FCFA 15,000 and a bucket of Garri worth FCFA 18,000 because I had no shelter so they got wet and could not be sold.” Ndze Clarisse, a vendor at Mile 16 explained.
The market structure made up of 20 stores, two VIP toilets, storage houses and two farm gate hanger structures, has since March, 2022, been a safe haven for merchants. Ndi Stella elucidated that “sellers now have safe stores to park their commodities. This saves the cost of transporting goods from the house to the market and back daily. The shelter from the sun and rains has further reduced the rate of skin infections and our profit margins have increased because we don’t have to close early for fear of the rains and the sun anymore.”
...