Development of a Mobile-Based Market Price Checker for Ogbete Main Market, Enugu

Price volatility in urban markets remains a significant concern for consumers and traders in Nigerian cities, where the absence of transparent pricing mechanisms exposes buyers to exploitation and makes informed purchasing decisions difficult. Ogbete Main Market in Enugu, one of the largest commercial markets in Southeast Nigeria, exemplifies this challenge, as commodity prices fluctuate daily without any centralised or accessible price reporting system. This study developed a mobile-based market price checker application designed to provide real-time commodity price information to consumers and traders within Ogbete Main Market, Enugu. The application was built using Flutter and Dart for the Android platform, supported by a Firebase real-time database backend that allowed market price data to be updated by designated market administrators and retrieved instantly by app users. Core features included commodity search by category, daily price listings, price trend charts, and a price comparison module across different sections of the market. Field testing conducted in collaboration with a sample of traders and consumers at Ogbete Market confirmed that the application delivered accurate, up-to-date price information and was operable on low-end Android devices commonly used in the market environment. User feedback indicated high perceived usefulness, particularly among female traders who identified the tool as beneficial for procurement planning. The study concluded that mobile price checker applications can meaningfully improve market transparency and consumer empowerment in Nigerian urban markets, with Ogbete Market representing an ideal deployment context.

Keywords: market price checker, mobile application, Ogbete Market, Enugu, consumer transparency