Gloomy Christmas looms: Traders count losses, citizens decry hike in price of local commodities

KEHINDE Ikudaisi, a petty trader in her late 50s resides in Ijaiye in Ojokoro Local Government Area of Lagos. For a long time, she has specialised in buying and selling of beverages. Most often, she would go the market to buy household items and resell to residents within her neighbourhood at retail prices.

At a time, she delved into poultry business visiting farms to buy eggs at wholesale prices and resell. At another time, she also tried exporting Nigerian products to neighbouring countries. But since the Federal Government closed its borders, life has become very hard for her.

With the little money that one of her children sent to her, the woman went to Ile Epo market along Abeokuta Expressway in Lagos to buy some stuffs such as rice, chicken and vegetable oil as the Yuletide approached.

According to her, she heard earlier in the month that few days to Christmas, there would be big reduction in the prices of foodstuffs, especially like rice. The reason for the reduction, she learnt then, was that Nigerian farmers would flood the market with qualitative local rice.

Perhaps, this informed her decision to wait till seven days to Christmas before going to the market. But on getting to there on Wednesday, she discovered to her chagrin that on the contrary prices of the food stuff had gone higher. The angry woman was lamenting at the point of purchase when Sunday Tribune met her.

“Is this what the government promised us? I thought they said few days to christmas we would have cheap and surplus rice. But it is exactly the opposite now. When they knew that they didn’t have the mechanisms in place, why did they promise us? Why did they close the borders?

“My business has crashed and I can’t even export any goods. With the little money sent to me, I came here to buy food for Christmas, only to meet everything very costly. This isn’t fair at all,” she lamented to Sunday Tribune.

Mrs Ikudaisi’s words vividly captured the growing frustration of many Nigerians as Christmas draws near. This, perhaps, explains why after closing the borders as a combative measure to reduce smuggling, the federal government encouraged local farmers to produce rice in larger quantities that will cater for the needs of the over 180 million Nigerians during the yuletide.

But barely three days to Christmas, price of foreign rice stood at N28,000 while local rice sold for between N17,000 and N19,500 naira at Bodija market in Ibadan which is one of the largest food markets in the South-West part of the country. It was also gathered that some brands of the local rice are also expensive.

In order to cushion the effects of the border closure and also stem the increasing prices of other rice brands in the market, the Lagos State Government commenced the sales of its LAKE Rice brand in collaboration with the Kebbi State Government.

A 50kg of the LAKE Rice goes for 17,000 and is available at key centres across the state including the Lagos Agric Centre in Agege and the Fish farm Estate at Odogunyan. However, as of Thursday, some residents who visited one of the centres, the Blue Roof Centre at the Lagos Television compound in Lagos said the product was no longer available there.

Many residents of Lagos therefore have had to rely on market forces to purchase their rice for the yuletide.

A foodstuff seller, Mrs Bisola Alayande, while lamenting the condition of low sales few days to Christmas said: “Sales had been different compared to last year; there is no money at all. As of this time last year people were already buying food stuffs for Christmas. The way it was last year, things were better off as there was much sales. There is no money in circulation at all. A bag of stoneless local rice is being sold for N21,000, while some local rice stuff with stones is being sold for between N16,000 and N17,000.

Another foodstuffs seller in Ibadan, Mrs Stella Adewuyi bemoaned low patronage by customers.

“As of this time last year, people were already buying in preparation for Christmas; we were already selling very well: vegetable oil, rice and what have you. But this year, I have not even seen the signs that Christmas is in the air. Sales had dropped drastically. The hike in prices of foodstuffs has affected people’s purchasing power,” she said.

For those who could not buy their rice in bags, the price of smaller measurements is no less pocket-friendlyconvenient. A rice seller, Mr Bode Adaramaja told Sunday Tribune that: “Last year, a measure of rice was sold for between N450 and N500; but this year, it is being sold for N850.”

Poultry sellers are also feeling the heat. They lamented that customers who normally buy for others have not even purchased for themselves this time round. One of them who spoke with Sunday Tribune, Dare Oloyede, said: “As you can see, everywhere is dry; no one is coming to buy. Before, everywhere would have been packed with people trouping in to buy in preparation for Christmas. The hike in prices has caused sales to drop.”

A self-employed woman who pleaded anonymity told Sunday Tribune that unlike last year, she had to buy new shoes for her children at expensive prices.

“Imagine buying children’s shoes for N5,000. How much are we going to purchase shoes for adults? I have not been able to buy anything for myself,” she lamented as she moved round the market looking for better bargains.

One pepper seller, who simply identified herself as Mrs Adeshina, said she had not made sales at all despite having displayed her stuff since seven in the morning.

“See how we displayed everything; no one had come to buy anything. Everything is dry and not encouraging, I have been out since 7am, but have made no sales. There is no sign that Christmas is approaching. But we are trusting God to help us,” she said.

Mr Muniru Oriolowo Aremu, who sells chicken said he could not see any sign of Christmas approaching adding that the state of the economy of the country has affected so many things which in turn has affected people’s purchasing power.

With the continued border closure increasingly creating economic enmity between Nigeria and her immediate neighbours coupled with the inability of most state governments to fully implement the new minimum wage and with an impending imposition of 7.5 per cent Value Added tax on good and digital services by the Nigerian Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) starting from 1st January, 2020 the lull in business may not stop at the Christmas season alone. It may continue well into the new year.