ABSTRACT
Marketing systems in rural West Africa continue to be dominated by periodic institutions, though their distinctive identity and function is increasingly being challenged. The dynamic nature of market systems ensures that changes in patterns and periodicity are inevitable, especially in response to population growth, urbanisation and improved accessibility. The conversion of periodic markets to daily affairs is one aspect of the changing retail environment in urban areas, and indeed in rural areas with high population densities (Okafor 1982). At the same time there are powerful forces which suggest that the rural periodic market plays, and will continue to play, an important part in the economic and social lives of farming communities.
