After the prerequisites, the process of resuscitating the Bè market is officially launched on Friday, March 24, 2023. It was under the direction of the Town Hall of the municipality of Bè Afédomé which gathers around it, both the Ministry of Administration territory, the Gulf prefecture, traditional chiefs, women from the Bè market, the RESA Association and students from EAMAU (School of Architecture and Town Planning).
It is all about a process at three levels, the first of which is the choice of a day of animation for this community market, then, how to think about its next day, and finally, the mobilization of resources, both financial than technical.
Setting the scene for this process, the Mayor of the Commune of Golfe 1, Joseph Koamy Gomado indicated that it is a "process initiated both with the women of the Bè market committee, as a whole, the traditional chiefs, the RESA association which mobilized the EAMAU students and also we had to wink at the Ministry of Territorial Administration, and the Gulf prefecture. This, to gather all the ideas to promote the visibility of the Bè market. You are unaware that at the level of the Municipal Council we have carried out rehabilitation work, it is physical, but it is fashionable to optimize the use of this market. And when you see that the market is not moving, you have to sit down and think. This is the primary objective. We had to mobilize all these stakeholders, so that everyone can contribute to the market regaining its former visibility." Also, the local elected official returned to the different stages of this process which involves various actors. "At first we had to consult the women of the market, we worked with the technicians, EAMAU, RESA, the technicians of the town hall, the traditional chiefs. It was a question of reflecting on the choice of a day of animation of the market.
There is a day that has been targeted, but it is not the primary objective, but we must broaden the field to be able to have other ideas to have unanimity on this market day. And with that, the 2nd step is also to see how we can think about tomorrow for the market. Because when we talk about the animation of the market and the market becomes animated, there will be more people, will we have enough places, can the market accommodate these visitors. This is why we have also mobilized student architects and urban planners to work in the form of a competition to propose masterpieces and see how we can identify a construction model for the market. 3rd stage, which we have already started, is the mobilization of financial and technical resources, there are investors who are already ready. We need to discuss this, with the supervisory ministry, the prefecture which plays the role of legality of control..., all these actors are there, to concretize the process step by step so that we can have the expected result", a- he explained.
As for the contribution of EAMAU students, to this effort of reflection with a view to revitalizing and optimizing the use of the Bè market, it was the subject of a proposal competition projects (20). At the end of this competition, whose projects were presented to the audience, it was that of group 1 that was acclaimed by the jury and the audience. In the opinion of the leader of this group, Nicolas Atsu, Master I student at EAMAU, the particularity of their project presented was more "profitability, which furnished our whole approach, ... tourism, culture and history ". Among other things, Nicolas Atsu and his colleagues propose the development of a car park, the elevation of a portico with the sign of the market, the raising of the roofs, a restaurant, an ecological architecture... Everything is thought out in order to be able to bring in resources up to 95% of the amount that will be spent on the work listed in the agenda of their project.
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Professor of Marketing Communication at EAMAU, Sylvie Bénissan Mensah, situated the intervention framework of her students in a general objective, "How to interact with a community". If she says she is "satisfied with the efforts that the students have made", she was delighted that the Commune of Golfe 1, by involving the students of the EAMAU, "allows all the other communes of Togo to 'have a database of potential market projects within 100 years'. As for the follow-up that will be given to what has been achieved, the teacher said that "the three projects, we will associate them under the direction of one of the teachers to have a unique and feasible project. It is not worth having a nice building if it is not profitable. When we build, we have to have money in return".
