The biggest and most popular technology market in West Africa, Computer Village, Lagos is in crisis.

The leadership crisis rocking the market has now divided the market operators along ethnic lines and has pitched the Igbo traders against their Yoruba counterparts.

Insiders told us that while the market has been led by Yoruba from inception and the current executives elected in 2016 also has a Yoruba man as president.

But, the Igbos are demanding to occupy the leadership position after the term of the current exco, which expires in July this year and this has been rejected by the Yoruba dealers, who are insisting on retaining the leadership position.

While the Yorubas are claiming that as the owners of the land where the market is situated, they deserve to remain the leader, the Igbos are predicating their stand on the fact that they have the larger number of traders in the market and deserve to also lead.

A dealer in the market said; “If you look at this market, Igbos account for over 80 per cent of shops here; we have been here since inception and we are contributing immensely to its growth. After about 15 years, we are saying let us also lead this market for once, but they are saying no. We have tolerated them for long, but this time, we have to fight for our right.”

For those who don’t know, Computer Village is the largest Information and Communication Technology hub in West Africa, accommodating over 3,000 ICT small and medium enterprises, the market is reputed for generating over N1.5 billion turnover on daily basis.