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Rising Costs, Poor Infrastructure Squeeze Businesses at Abuja’s Dei-Dei Timber Market. By Anthony Eze.



At first glance, Abuja’s Dei-Dei Timber Market appears busy and resilient, workers cutting, loading, and transporting planks under the early movement of trade. But beneath the activity lies a growing strain. Traders, carpenters, transporters, and customers say rising fuel costs, poor infrastructure, and weakening demand are reshaping one of the Federal Capital Territory’s most important building-material hubs.
Interviews conducted at the market show a business environment under pressure, where the cost of production and transportation has steadily pushed up timber prices, forcing both sellers and buyers to adjust their expectations.

The Dei-Dei Timber Market is one of the largest timber distribution centres in the Federal Capital Territory, supplying wood and building materials to construction firms, carpenters, and retailers within Abuja and neighbouring states. Like many informal trading hubs in Nigeria, its operations are closely tied to fuel prices, transportation networks, and construction activity, making it highly sensitive to national economic conditions.

  Despite the mounting pressures, stakeholders at the Dei-Dei Timber Market continue to express resilience. While traders and artisans described rising costs and infrastructural gaps as major challenges, many maintained that the market remains essential to livelihoods and construction activities across Abuja.
Across all interviews, one message remained consistent: the timber trade is under strain, but not broken, its future, they say, depends largely on economic stability, improved infrastructure, and policies that reduce the cost of doing business in Nigeria.

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