Nigeria's harsh economic climate, worsened business says Madueke

A petty trader who identified himself as Jude Madueke said the harsh economic climate in Nigeria has worsened their business.

Madueke who deals on second- hand clothing materials porpularly known as "Okrika"  business  more than a decade now,  stated this in a chat with  Peb News Correspondent  on the challenges they face since  economic crunch started in Nigeria. He said the economy makes things difficult for them as it is no longer easy to break even let alone to make profit. According to him, the price for the procurement of the bale clothing materials has skyrocketed.

He said: "The price of bale is going  higher on daily basis. What we  used to buy  between N60,000 and N80,000 now costs, after some months, with the  increment in the  Dollar as against the Naira, a bale rose to N150,000 and then gradually, rose to  between N 250,000  and N280, 000.  Right now, it  costs N680,000."

"Even if we want to scale down, the  goods which used to cost  N3,000  now cost N 10,000. And  efforts to convince our customers to buy at the rate of  N15,000 or even N12000, to enable us make some profit, they argue over this. This has made the business tiresome. How can  someone buy goods worth N10,000 and will not make profit? It is terrible!".

Speaking further, he said, apart from the cost price of the goods, logistics affects their profit margin in the  business as the Customs Officers, cost of transportation and  Police'  extortion further affect their profit. He said:" We used to go to Lagos between N3,000 and N4,000 but now,  it is between N 15,000 and N 18,000."
 
According to him, the challenges the Police and Customs Officials pose  to them are enormous. His words:"  Whenever we board vehicles to carry our goods, the driver will ask us to pay between N20,000 and N 30,000 extra that would be used to settle the Police and Customs Officers on the way".

Generally, traders are lamenting the high cost of goods, they therefore  appealed to the Federal Government to take drastic measures to  improve on the economy to reduce the suffering of Nigerians.