NANTS was formed in Lagos by a group of traders in October 1997.The organisation was formed as a human rights and mediating force during the military regime of General Abacha when traders, perhaps owing to their perceived ignorance were suffering from arbitrary harassments, arrests and intimidation in the hands of uniformed men who sometimes carted away their goods with impunity. From the original name Association of Nigerian Traders(ANTS), the organisation has transformed into a national body with changes and spread across gender and sectoral balance, and essentially influencing government policies and practices in different ways