Miss Damilola Oshunde walked in majestically into a church some days back in Ibadan and it was with keen interest everyone around turned to study her appearance. She wore a jean and top and had completed the dressing with a face mask. The mask soon became the center of attraction and few people had to ask the obvious question, “Are you on this because of corona”? When Saturday Tribune walked up to Miss Oshunde, she was asked how much it cost at the time she got it. She said it was N500.
She stated how unfair that was, “Why should it be when this corona outbreak just got to Nigeria sellers had to increase the price of this mask? Something they were supposed to share for free. Facemasks used to cost less than N200. In fact, sanitiser is even worse, the hike in price scared me so much I just had to get this mask, I could not afford it”.
Kayode Oyedele also spoke about how he was utterly shocked at the ridiculous amount he got the sanitiser he had just bought. He said, “the price of sanitiser was N3 000 in the pharmacy I walked in to buy it, just as safety measures. Pocket size used to be between N500 and N800 depending on size then but I was shocked to see N2, 000 and 3,000 price tags just at the announcement of the Italian man infecting some Nigerians. Some of the sanitisers now cost N15,000”.
As cost of safety products increased, the economic activities between Nigeria and China had also been affected. Nigeria, a major importer of goods from China has had sales affected by the virus. According to reports, people who have goods to buy from China had to hold down their goods at the port because of fear of getting infected by contact.
The hike in the prices of protection materials is not only limited to Nigerians alone as according to a data provided to CCN by Helium 10, a software company that assists Amazon retailer disclosed. The report stated that, “Amazon users have searched for the word ‘N95 mask’ more than 862,000 times in the last 30 days. In December, users searched for the keyword a mere 4,500 times over 30 days. And with overwhelming demand comes inevitable price gouging. The top-selling mask product, a 100-pack of Universal 4533 sanitary dust masks, started selling at $8. The price eventually rose over $200”.
China – Nigeria money market
Importers handling cargo shipment from China have stated that the Coronavirus infection have affected imports from China by 40 Percent. Saturday Tribune confirmed from importers that the coronavirus outbreak had reduced imports from China by 40 percent.
Speaking to Saturday Tribune exclusively, Vice President of the Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs Agents (ANLCA), Kayode Farinto stated that if the infectious disease is not checked by the second quarter of 2020, the drop in import shipments from China to Nigeria could reach 60 percent.
According to the ANLCA Vice President, “It is not an insinuation that the Corona virus has affected imports shipment from China to Nigeria. As of now, it has cut import from China to Nigeria by 40 Percent.
“Don’t forget that about 75 percent of cargo import to Nigeria comes from China. So, for now, the disease has reduced cargo import from China to Nigeria by 40 Percent.
Mr Farinto also added that, “If the infection is not tackled and controlled by second quarter of 2020, it might cut import from China to Nigeria by 60 percent”.
It affected my business, but I have learnt another skill in no time – Opeloye
Fariah Opeloye, owner of Fariah Empire, has had her own share of the effect of this virus. According to her, Coronavirus has affected her business both positively and negatively. The negative effect on sales springs from the fact that most of the things used in Nigeria are made from china whether electronics appliances, fashion wears, accessories and so on.
“Ever since I started ordering from China, this is the first time this will be happening and most of my items are from China because of demands from people. But right now, even those that travel there to get goods do not want to go there anymore because of the coronavirus. This has caused a high demand but low supply accompanied with scarcity and high cost.”
The negative effect has, however, turned to be a blessing in disguise, as it has opened her eyes to many other things which are now helpful for her business.
Opeloye said, “I have acquired many skills and I’m still getting money despite the coronavirus issue. It all depends on how you run your business.”
Finding another source of income is also the situation for Pelumi Falana who is into sales of bags, shoes and clothes.
To her, Coronavirus has seriously affected the sales and profit after she bought goods for Christmas sales in October/November.
“After the Christmas rush, I wanted to bring in new items and my agent said there was public holiday and that I should wait for a short period of time.
“The holiday was supposed to end last month February but I still couldn’t bring in more goods as all shops and outlets were closed till further notice.
“The orders I placed before the holidays have already been sourced, all that is left is the shipping. Unfortunately, they are now on hold. I had to pay the customer from my own purse for peace.
“Those in this situation know it’s not a nice one because some of them were caught unawares. However, I did not allow it to affect me.
“Instead I concentrated on another market. Before, I used to do more of Chinese items and less of Turkey items, but now, I concentrate more on the latter.”
The change, however, has caused an increase in her prices, which many customers complain about, but according to her, the prices of both items cannot be compared to each other.
Amusan Yetunde, who also sells bags and shoes, noted that the virus has affected sales from her end to a large extent because most customers specify China as the country they want their goods to come from but because of the outbreak, some manufacturers are yet to resume work after their new year.
“However, some still sell their goods and as regards importation of goods, it hasn’t really been affected because the agencies I use are very efficient and they deliver promptly.
“The prices of goods have not been affected, in fact, exchange rate (Naira to Rmb or yuan) has even reduced, same for shipping rate, compared to how we exchanged early January and this present day.
“As for me, issues like this happen sometimes during their holidays or New Year, but this is the first time the cause is associated with a virus.”
Prices of phones, accessories have increased
Since the outbreak of Coronavirus in China, prices of phones, computer gadgets and accessories imported from China to Nigeria have also gone up as phone and computer dealers who travel to china to buy and sell phones and its accessories now claim they could not travel anymore and thus, could not bring in new products. This was the situation when Saturday Tribune visited some major stores in Ibadan and also spoke with some dealers in some other parts of the country. They all confirmed that prices of commodities such as phones, computer, wears and some other things imported from China and some other Asian country have been inflated.
A phone repairer and accessories dealer, popularly known as Elegushi Technology in Conoil filling station at Mokola area of Ibadan; who deals in Tecno, Infinix, Itel, Iphone, Samsung, Nokia repairs told Saturday Tribune that “prices of phones and parts have increased, because we can no longer get stuffs from China anymore. All these phone screens, touchpads and all these phone parts are imported from China and since the Coronavirus broke out in China and now that we even have it in Nigeria; the prices have gone up, because they are scarce.
“Even those that had the accessories before Coronavirus have increased the price of these phones and accessories because they know they are now scarce and people will be looking for them. For example, before, we could change the screen for Infinix hot 7 for N8, 000 with workmanship, but now, even the screen alone is N13, 000 and we barely get any gain from it.
Another phone dealer in Ekiti State, who has a shop at Fayose Market of Ado-Ekiti, popularly known in the market as D-money, also speaking with Saturday Tribune said they are faced with the problem of getting the phones and accessories. “We could not get any of these phones anymore; even those that have those phones are hiding it and not ready to sell. Phones that we get for N30, 000-N35, 000, they now call it N43, 000 and it is even logical, for example, in a factory in China where we have like 30 workers and half of them are infected with Coronavirus, definitely the production will be low.
“Another thing is that, no marketer now will want to leave the country to travel to China to get materials, it is risky for now, because when you even get there first, you will be quarantined for 14 days. When you get to Nigeria again, you will be quarantined for another two weeks, so all these stress and the risk attached to it alone is enough to scare people away from going there. If a United Kingdom minister can be tested positive to Coronavirus, then everyone has to just keep his or her money and stay here in Nigeria.
“Even phone accessories including power banks are now very expensive. There is this company that just entered the country called ‘Eagles’, they produce memory cards, even power banks, they sell 20,000 capacity power bank for N3,500 and now, we could not even get to buy and sell, because they cannot travel to get new products. We just hope when Coronavirus stops, the prices will come down, because I believe China is still producing, it is just going there to get the product that is the problem”, he said.
He however lamented the fact that Nigeria could not leverage on the outbreak of the virus to embrace locally made products. He said: “It is quite unfortunate we do not produce any of these things here in Nigeria, we import everything. We import phone case, charger, memory card, power bank, USB cord and so on from China. For example, Iphone is from America but it is produced in China, America only design and China produce. Reason being that cost of labour in China is cheap compared to what it is in America where you pay a worker as much as 10 dollar per hour, where as with that same 10 dollar, you can get labour for 10 hours. So it is not as if we cannot produce those things here in Nigeria too, but the cost of production there is very low compared to any other place. That is why you can easily get a China made USB cord for as low as N300 and so on, so that is the issue.”
The downside on economy
According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), within the official manufacturing PMI, China’s export order sub-index dropped to 28.7 from 48.7 in January, while imports fell to 31.9 from 49.0 percent.
With this development, most goods expected from China by traders have been on hold. The downside of this is that the with the rising importation in Nigeria and the disruption in economy balance with the outbreak of this Covid-19, the country’s trade balance may expose the Nigerian economy slopping from the cliff in no time.