Getting More People To Visit Tinapa

FEB 08, 2015

Tinapa in Calabar is a great idea, but the reality of the place is a bit different — it’s quite empty, a little bit unmaintained and many of the shops are not fully utilized. I have an idea how this can be changed using free market pressure.

Rather than shops being rented out in Tinapa, the shops should be given out for free. At the end of the year, a selection process by the Tinapa managers is done where all shops are allocated to one person or the other for no cost and for the period of exactly one year.

During the year, Tinapa takes 30% of all profit generated by the shops. To ensure that they are not cheated, the shops are obliged to sell their goods at a rate with tax, and the VAT refunds are given in a central office. This central office, as it refunds VAT will also write down the sales for each shop and at the end of the month the 30% profit is to be paid to Tinapa.

What this does is that Tinapa revenue becomes a direct function of how many people visit the place, and not how many businesses are located in the premises. Similarly, the businesses do not have large up-front capital, they simply need to make sales, so they encourage people to come there. All businesses that bring in the least amount of money to Tinapa will then be removed from the premises and their spot allocated to another business with more potential.

This way, pressure is on the businesses as well as the management to bring more people to Tinapa.

Wri