The Adamawa State Government has set the machinery in motion to rebuild the famous Jimeta Shopping Complex, located in the capital, Yola.
The new idea is to transform the current complex of 2,330 shops to more shops by replacing the one-story structures to multi-storey buildings.
The new structure will include a clinic, a police post, a car park, among other facilities.
The Jimeta Shopping Complex remodelling is being handled by the state Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in collaboration with the Yola North Local Government Area.
The state Commissioner of Commerce & Industry, Dr Ishaya Dabari, who fielded questions from newsmen at the weekend on the rebuilding of the Jimeta Shopping Complex, said for the overhaul to be done smoothly, shop owners are being relocated to the late Gambo Jimeta Modern Market and Motor Park, now a largely vacant facility in Fallujah, opposite the Main Jimeta Modern Market.
“We are upgrading the shops to modern standards, and we will make more shops available to people. The remodeling plan is to expand the facilities, even after widening the Mubi Road by which it is located, because upstairs (multi-story buildings) will replace the current one-story shops,” Dabari said.
He disclosed that work will start on the remodelling exercise two weeks after the current Ramadan fast and will be completed within one year.
“As is usual with projects done by this government, this one year duration is sacrosanct. By end of one year, the whole thing should been concluded and a brand new modernized Jimeta Shopping Complex with all necessary facilities is expected to be in place,” the commissioner said.
Arogidigba Global Journal reports that the scheduled rebuilding of the Jimeta Shopping Complex may have resulted mostly from exigencies of Yola’s third flyover being built at the hitherto popular Mubi Roundabout.
The flyover project extends to just before the shopping complex along the Atiku Abubakar Way, formerly Mubi Road.
Part of the plan of the flyover is expansion of surrounding streets, including the Atiku Abubakar Way along which the Shopping Complex is situated.
To make up for the demolition of some shops at the complex, the current one-story buildings are to be replaced with multi-story buildings, which, according to Dabari will result eventually to the construction of more shops.
