PREMIUM TIMES
“Sister, what do you need? I sell good winter jackets for men and women. I will give you a good price. Sister, come with me, let me show you my shop,” Olufemi Agbaoye, 39, called out to me as I approached the popular Yaba Market. Despite expressing my disinterest in his merchandise with a simple headshake, he pressed on.
Mr Agbaoye is one of hundreds of ‘hustlers’ around Yaba Market. They position themselves strategically around the entrance of the market, targeting persons they perceive to be shoppers. They are often relentless, as they earn their livelihood by convincing a shopper to go with them into a shop and make a purchase.
Fearing that I might be in the market to buy something else, he switched to other items. “Aunty, I also sell fine women’s jeans, tops and gowns. Very nice ones, please come with me. Let me show you my shop.” At this point, I began to wonder how many shops Mr Agbaoye had. While many would tag his unsolicited “consultancy” as annoying, his offer to take me to where I could purchase my items is popularly known as hustling in the Yaba market.
Who are the hustlers of Yaba market?
According to Mr Agbaoye in an interview with PREMIUM TIMES, hustlers are men who stand at the entrance of the market on the lookout for shoppers. Their job is to convince shoppers to patronise them. Once they agree, the hustler leads the way to the desired shop.
“We call customers from outside because most people just pass by, they do not know what goods are sold in the market. So when we come outside, we inform them of what is available in the shops and ask them what they are in the market to buy. Once they inform us, we let them know we know where they can get those items and take them there,” he explained.
Mr Agbaoye started hustling in 2019 after a section of the market was affected by a fire incident. He said his shop, where he sold women’s denim trousers, was also affected.
”After the incident, I didn’t have money to cope again, so I had to start hustling to get some money to start afresh.”
Asked how profitable the business is, Mr Agbaoye said “Hustling is not profitable, but we do not have an option because of the situation of the country. Everything is now expensive, so the little money we make goes into our daily survival.”
Chinedu Anukem, who specialises in male footwear, shares a similar fate with Mr Agbaoye. The 35-year old said he resorted to hustling after his shop was demolished by the Lagos State Government.
“I used to sell shoes at the railway side, but I lost everything when the Lagos State Government chased us out of the place. The government scattered our goods. We left, then came back again, but the government chased us away again and scattered our goods. So instead of going back to the East (the Nigerian south-east region), I decided to hustle to make money. Anytime I have money, I will start my business again,“ Mr Anukem narrated.
Unlike Mr Anukem who started hustling a few years ago, some of the hustlers have been in the business for more than a decade. Wearing a white T-shirt under a brown jacket and black shorts, Sikiru Fashola said he had been hustling for 10 years. The Lagos-born hustler plans to rent his own shop from the proceeds of his hustling business.
“I want to open my shop this year. I am also buying the goods and keeping them somewhere till I have enough money to rent a shop. I don’t plan to work on the street forever. I have dreams of owning a shop, building a house and having a successful business. I am praying for all of these and I believe God will do it for me, “Mr Fashola told PREMIUM TIMES.
Hustlers make money without owning shops or goods in the market
For hustlers, convincing a potential customer to go with them into a shop is the first step. The hustler only makes money when a sale is made beyond the selling price of the original shop owner. If that is not achieved, that’s a loss for the hustler.
“Sometimes we do not make a profit. If the customer beats down the price of the item to the selling price of the shop owner, there is no money for such a hustler,“ Mr Agbaoye explained.
But not all days are bad. He said a hustler could make as much as N15,000 in a day if they seal an average sale of N2,000 and N4,000 per customer.
Silent millionaires?
The average Yaba hustler is male and often looks rough. He dresses simply as if to personify the nature of his job. But this may be a façade, as a simple analysis of the average gain of a hustler tells a different story. So if the average gain per day is N10,000 in six working days, Monday through Saturday, he has made N60,000 in just one week, double Nigeria’s monthly minimum wage. What that means is that the average hustler can make as much as N2.8 million annually. He neither owns goods nor pays rent for a shop. He also does not pay tax to anyone.
However, not all traders are happy with them.
Trouble in paradise
A trader who deals in second-hand cardigans and joggers expressed his disapproval of hustlers in Yaba Market. The trader who is in his 50s pleaded to speak anonymously. He said hustlers most times inflate the price of goods with the goal of gaining more than the shop owner. “I believe in making sales from buyers who are passing by. I do not deal with hustlers. They make money more than the traders,“ he said.
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