The city is divided into three urban municipalities: Maradi I, Maradi II and Maradi III. Maradi is centred on the Grand-marché, a large daily market of wholesale, retail, and agricultural goods from across south central Niger and also the cross-border trade with Nigeria. Some of the districts in the town include Zaria and Sabon Gari in the north, and to the west Mokoya, Dan Gouleye, Bagalam, Yandaka, Maradawa, Hassao and Limantchi.

Originally part of Katsina, a Hausa state, it became independent in the 19th century. From the early 19th century, Maradi was home to one of several Hausa traditional rump states, formed by rulers and nobility who fled the rise of the Sokoto Caliphate. Elements of the Katsina ruling class continued to claim the area as the seat of a Katsina state in exile ruled by the Sarkin Katsina Maradi. Maradi was constrained by the more powerful Gobir exilic state to the west, the Sultanate of Damagaram based at Zinder to the east, and Sokoto to the south. The arrival of the French in 1899 saw the bloody destruction of the town by the Voulet-Chanoine Mission, but later the town recovered to become an important regional centre of commerce by the 1950s.

When someday comes you'll need to get in.

When someday comes you'll need to be able to get around.