By; MUIZAT SANI & GOODNESS DAVID, Kaduna
Traders of consumer products and other essentials have lamented poor patronage from customers, attributing the development to inflation, free fall of Naira and poor wages for salary earners.
A cross section of shop owners in Mando Community Market interviewed by our correspondent, lamented poor patronage experienced by shop owners, attributing the development to consistent hike in prices of products, they said, was caused by Inflation and closure of the county’s borders by the current administration.
A foodstuff seller who simply identified herself as Mama Iyabo said business has slowed down drastically, disclosing that majority of her customers whom she stated depended on salaries as their purchasing power, have cut down expenditure on provisions and other food items.
Mama Iyabo revealed that a particular customer who used to spend an average of 100,000 Naira monthly had to cut down the amount by 50 per cent, a measure she stated was necessitated by high rate of inflation and steady loss of value by Naira.
“Buyers have now learnt to cut down on their monthly spending for foodstuff and provision to channel the resources into other areas such as, school fees, house rent and others.
” Customers that would buy products worth 50,000 Naira can now barely spend half of that amount due to hike in prices of the products and other financial commitments to family members,” she complained.
Another businessman, Musa Haruna who specializes in selling grains, lamented poor purchasing power of buyers, saying the situation has been deteriorating since closure of borders and rise in insecurity.
Haruna while explaining difficulties encountered by farmers, especially those in high risk areas due to attacks from bandits, decried frequency of attacks on farming communities whom he noted, dwellers of urban areas depend on for supply of edible food.
“Most of our farmers as you are aware, cannot go to farm due to fear of being killed by terrorist bandits who kidnap and impose levies on hapless villagers who are our sources of supply.
” Prices of maize, beans, millet and other staple products have hit the roof, resulting in poor patronage from buyers who prefer to buy fractions of what they used to buy in the past.
” We urge our policy makers and implementers to tackle head-on the issue of insecurity, inflation and general poor performance of our economy.
Another trader, Iya Yusuf who sells provisions, expressed frustration at what she described as uncontrollable level of hike in prices of goods.
” When you buy a particular product from the distributors today at a particular price, tomorrow the price would go up when you go back to buy more.
” If we as retailers complain, the response will be dollars has gone up as usual, which they attribute to borrowings by the Federal Government from foreign financial bodies which are in Dollars, resulting in devaluation of our Naira”, she said.
Iya Yusuf urged the present administration to diversify the economy instead of depending on foreign loans to finance budgets, which she said, has ripple and devastating effects on the nation’s economy.
Speaking in a similar vein, a dealer in vegetables and fruits, Malam Kassim Mai Ayaba attributed slow performance of business in the past seven years to insecurity and hike in prices of petroleum products such as PMS and diesel which he said transporters of goods solely depend on for movement of products from areas of availability to markets to be purchased by buyers.
Mai Ayaba stated that volume of products he used to buy has drastically reduced due to activities of bandits.
He posited that the ugly situation would continue unless the federal and state governments rise to the occasion of protecting lives and property of citizens, particularly, the rural communities.
