STREET TRADING, HAWKING TO BE LEGALIZED IN CROSS RIVER COMMUNITIES

While states like Lagos and FCT has banned street hawking of any form, the Cross River government is putting all the necessary parameters in place in order to make street hawking a legal form of trading in the state. This is according to the governor of the state, Prof. Ben Ayade, while interacting with reporters at the Executive Chambers, Calabar, disclosed that he is currently awaiting an approval by the House of Assembly to legalize street hawking. According to him, having a policy against street hawking will be too hard on traders who cannot afford to rent a shop. In his words: 

 
You cannot tell a man not to sell his goods on the streets because he cannot rent a store, yet you tell the man not to steal."
Just provide a regulatory framework because to prohibit hawking is to tell a man that you don’t want him to eat."
I have sent the Hawking Rights Bill to the House of Assembly to provide a regulatory framework that will provide the right to hawk. We are making provisions for a hawkers’ corridor. 

 
There must be a minimum age, you must be 18 and they must be seen to be properly dressed with reflective vests. 

 
They must have a time zone of when they come out, so as to be able to make optimal sales because we don’t want them to constitute nuisance in the environment."
Prohibiting hawking is to tell a man that you don’t want to give him food, and you don’t also want him to steal, it is unfair. 

 
They have a right to determine how to live as long as it is within the ambit of the law. So, we are repealing anything that prohibits hawking in the state, he said.

He however reemphasized that the hawkers must be up to 18years of age and must have obtained the basic secondary education in order to discourage child labour and trafficking .