Gandu Albasa area near Kano State International Trade fair complex is a hub for furniture making business where hundreds are eking out a living.
From carpenters, upholstery makers to showroom attendants, sprayers and apprentices learning the craft, the business support their lives and those of their dependants.
From Zoo road down to Lawan Danbazau road up the residence of the Late Bashir Tofa are dozens of showrooms stocked with beds, Turkish sofas, dining tables and chairs, kitchen cabinets and other furniture products produced from workshops scattered across the trade fair complex area.
Mansur Rabiu, the Manager of H Sarakee Best Furniture, a small company that deals in beds and sitting room furniture, said over 5000 people are earning livelihood from the business apart from indirect jobs like food sellers, POS operators and recharge card sellers, forms and accessories sellers as well as drivers of delivery Vans employed by the business.
According to him, a conservative figure of over N1billion was invested by individuals producing and selling furniture products in the area.
‘Our local carpenters are doing quality jobs to the extent that one cannot differentiate our products with the ones made or imported from Turkiye or overseas.
‘People who desire to renovate and decorate their home with new furniture always troop out to our showrooms. Some parents planning to give out their daughters in marriage also patronise our business regularly which encourages us to invest more to support the business,’ Rabiu said.
He said their workshops are equipped with modern machineries while raw materials like wood and plywood are usually purchased in bulk to keeping production going, adding that other materials used in upholstery are sourced from textile companies in Kaduna.
On display at shops next to H Sarakee Best Furniture, Arewa Furniture and Rijiyar Lemo Latest Furniture are bedside cabinets, executive chairs and royal sofas.
Ali Musa, one of the sales boys at the shops said the office furniture on display are made based on request while other products on display are for sale.
‘We make office or school furniture like table, desk, chairs strictly upon placing an order by client, unlike other products.The reason is that people can come and buy ready made furniture at any given time, the same cannot be said of office furniture,’ Musa said.
He said when the Kano State government gave out a contract to produce over 73800 units of three-seater desk, carpenters from this area moved inside the trade fair complex to do the job, acknowledging that the single gesture from the state further encouraged them.
Similarly the state government patronised furniture makers at the Gandu Albasa hub, purchasing all the furniture given freely to the 1800 couples who joined its mass wedding programme in 2024, a gesture, Musa said, those doing business in the area would not forget in hurry.
Musa also revealed that even big furniture firms in other locations within Kano do buy from them when their clients demand the kind of local furniture products available at the Gandu furniture hub.
Furniture Makers at Goron Dutse along Aminu Kano way, Musa said, do not enjoy the kind of patronage they have at Gandu Albasa despite being located inside in the ancient city.
Saidu Abdu, a teenager from Maidile quarters in Kumbotso local government area, is learning the craft at Hassan Naiya Furniture whose workshop is behind the trade fair complex by Ado Bayero mall.
Among five other young stars keen about acquiring skills in carpentry, Abdu is focusing on learning chair-making just as others prefer bed-making techniques among others.
Another young man Salisu Hassan from Badawa in Nassarawa local government area is learning the craft with a focus on bed-making.
Hassan Naiya, the owner of the furniture business said he is committed to teaching the young ones the trade because it is enough to meet one’s financial obligations in life.
According to Naiya, the focus is to impart the skills to them while working at the workshop with a stipend to motivate them.
‘We only train them and give them the skills. From here they grow and set up their own workshops sometimes with support from within. Furniture business, as you can see, is employing many thereby making a modest contribution towards addressing unemployment in Kano,’ Naiya said.
Both Saidu and Abdu stated that they are working hard to acquire the skills to become independent furniture makers that would employ other people to work for them.
Another teenager working at the Gandu furniture hub is Abubakar Sadiq, a student at Aliko Dangote University of Science and technology Wudil Kano. Sadiq who graduated from Kano Technical College Kofar Nassarawa, said he decided to learn carpentry to support his pursuit of higher education.
‘University degrees are very important but skills are also very critical.Iam learning carpentry to be able to at least finance my pursuit of higher education because jobs are not readily available for people who obtained higher degrees,but with this skill I can survive,’ said Sadiq.
Rana Tahir, a prominent Furniture firm in Kano faces stiff competition from the Gandu furniture hub even as the company enjoys patronage from government circles and corporate organisations.
Bulus Madaki, an employee in the company said enduring quality of their products is the main secret behind the company’s success but local furniture products made at Gandu Albasa are competing with them just as they compete with Chinese products.
In the meantime, furniture makers at the Gandu Albasa area are increasingly expanding the business and therefore attracting clients from all parts of the state.