Lockdown businesses: How masks, gloves, pharmaceuticals, telecoms firms made money

In a feast of knocks that ungracefully graced the season of the ‘new normal’; a world of face masks and shields, on-line meetings and social distancing, many industries such as the transport sector, educational institutions, entertainment and event planning services were rendered paralytic. Amidst the turbulence and hullabaloo, there were greener pastures for some other sectors. FAVOUR BOLUWADE in this report peruses some of those who got a boost and the means for future survival with activities getting back to normal.

There was a day I took N3000 to the market and I thought it would be enough to get a pack of hand gloves as usual. The seller was adamant to sell for N4000 because she said she bought it at a costlier price and it would be loss for her if she sold it at a cheaper rate. On my part I was selling hand gloves and face masks because of the demand but it was so challenging. It got me close to tears. Everyone knew we were going on temporary house arrest due to Coronavirus and they wanted to boost their profits faster, quicker and without consideration”. Ms Bukola Adebomi, an entrepreneur in Ibadan, Oyo State, related her agony to Saturday Tribune when she was asked how she survived during the lockdown in those words.

According to Forbes, E-commerce was speculated to have a boost in their revenue due to the increase in on-line transactions. The report said: “E commerce will be the sector that will see a revenue boost as a result of the pandemic, adding $175 billion in revenue in 2020, which represents a 5% increase.”

As entertainers struggled to stay relevant through live videos and live chats,  some of them disclosed they had plans for the rainy days. Enyinna Nnigwe, Nigerian actor and producer told Saturday Tribune that actors had businesses to fall back on: “we must have suffered a setback like many other sectors in the entertainment industry because ours is a social work, but entertainers have businesses.”

Another research group reported there was actually real loss for the movie industry and event planners as a result of many events getting either postponed or cancelled.

The report stated: “$11 billion losses for the movie industry with a 25% decline and a 15% drop in TV advertising, especially for ads promoting events such as concerts that can no longer take place.”

On that established fact, workers in essential services were communicated with and a number of them said the halt was a blessing in disguise after all.

Face masks became one of the most sought out property everywhere —Sellers, fashion designers

We were not selling clothes any more, just face masks, that’s what my clients demanded

Adebomi Bukola , who has a walk-in and active on-line clothing store also said the pandemic somewhat became a blessing in disguise when she decided to just focus on face masks production in large quantities. Her reasons, she explained, were because of low turnout in ordering of wears any more as most people started to work from home.

Adebomi, CEO, Nilky Executive said: “During this pandemic, my fashion business was affected; it went from hundred to zero as nobody was buying clothes. People were just after food and how to survive with food. Even though in the past one month, people have started to get back on their feet and are starting to buy fashion items again. It was better than the past three months. Basically it wasn’t a good deal for me at all during this pandemic because people find it hard to make dress for themselves due to the restriction of going out for ceremonial functions and all. So we had to strategise because we have families. So I decided to go into production of face mask in mass. The risk of importation was there, airlines were not functioning, and the risk of importing face mask was not safe. My team was scared the mask would not have been affected if we had to import from somewhere else. So our strategy to produce ours saved me during lock down. The first set we produced N2000 pieces and we were able to sell the whole products.

Asking about the financial implications of production due to cost of transportation, Adebomi said it was not easy and quite costly but she earned that way.

“The production was tough too because we needed to get quality materials, we added filter paper to prevent smoke. Materials we even wanted to use were quite expensive because of the lock down. What we got for N600naira increased to N1500. Hand gloves increased from about N3000 to N4000 or N4500.

So trying to even package in a neater way because of the attention people now paid to neatness was another challenge. Some of my other colleagues who sold face mask  without hawking had to go extra mile to package these things because everyone was now living in a kind of fear of being exposed to the virus; they wanted to buy something neat and qualitative. Sales were easier because we were in essential service. No one was viewing my clothing catalogue for so long. It was just face masks. We used the social media primarily. A lot of people were on-line, so many people had to subscribe because they were not engaged totally.

Deborah Ayinde is a fashion designer in Lagos State and her talents became gold when she diverted to sewing face mask for survival. On the rate of her profit, Ayinde said that “The production of the face mask was quite easy compared to making normal human dress, because it is just like a very small piece.

Selling of face mask became my new thing because it’s mandatory, people needed it, people were asking for it and the government made it compulsory such that anybody without it would be restricted from going about. So we sold and still sell to make people protect themselves and for the cash value that comes with it.

Asking if her fashion store made profits, she stated it was really low as people had no events, shows, concerts and weddings or festivals were restricted to a particular number of attendees. She added that she hadn’t sewn dresses as at the time Saturday Tribune spoke with her.

She said, “I did not make dress as much as I did compare to when there is this pandemic. It›s very very low like sales.

And to some extent I was able to cover up for some expenses keeping and it really helped during the total lock down. People were unable to go to work now like I was unable to go for my service year too but then the thing was, face mask sales covered up some stuff, it›s dope. «

“Customers response to face mask was high compared to other clothing accessories because it’s mandatory. And some clients who still tried to sew from me would even tell me that the material used to make their dresses should have extra left because they wanted a nose mask of it. So because it’s a must for everyone due to the pandemic now, so it’s a must for everyone to have a nose mask, and the demand is high and customers are really responding to it”, she concluded.

Internet subscriptions in Nigeria increased to about 140.7 million up by 4.9 million since March 2020 —Nigerian Communications Commission

The other side of the greener pastures, telecommunication companies were the fat and budding ‘grazing animal’.

Those who had to maintain an on-line presence to keep up with sales, they had to utilise social media platforms, websites and on-line stores for survival.

A lot of marketers, according to Jumia, Nigeria’s foremost on-line store, wanted to sell on their site because most of their customers resolved to shop digitally.

In a report from Jumia, it was stated that May and June saw its highest amounts of active vendors.

Students were at home, had to attend classes on-line, people had to work from home, marketers had to use social media, entertainment became synonymous to live videos and content became the new crude oil. Everyone needed to feel either relevant, busy, not relinquished, not forgotten and most of all kill boredom.  There was joy on the faces of some people who enjoyed the free SMS plan some telecoms company made. Data could not be overlooked as it was the answer and made them gleeful.

Ojo Blessing, a lawyer who is also a hair stylist said she spent too much on data. “My data rate increase must have been hundred percent. I needed to remind people of my business so that they would remember to patronise after lock down.”

There were hash tags during the heat of the lockdown on why the telecommunication companies should reduce data tariff, because more people were spending time on-line.

Speaking with Omowumi Omojola, she said she was not a social media person and would rather get busy reading books, watching a movie, hanging out than staying glued to her phone for social media gallivants. But as time went on, she had to even subscribe to download her favourite movies.

Omojola said: “After staying for a whole month from my work place where as an intern I had been asked to stay home and stay safe, I had to become an advocate for lesser data tariff because I found myself subscribing more than before.

“I used to spend around N1500 on data fortnightly because I am not really a phone freak, but, I have spent N3500 on data in one of the weeks of lock down. I even opened a Twitter account because it felt like everything that was happening was on Twitter, I needed to get engaged, I was terribly bored. I am so sure telecoms would have garnered a 100 percent turnaround in their revenue. I spent a lot on data to be honest. My friends too were always on-line. In fact it takes less than three seconds to get replies to chats as time went on. So many people were active.

Others who responded to the poll of how much they spent approximately on data said they roughly increased their budget by double or triple.

Pharmacies were operating, selling; demand was high- Pharmacist Ayeni

Gloria Ayeni who is a pharmacist was not really on break during the compulsory lock down being among essential services too.

She narrated the routine they had during the lock down.

“I worked briefly in a hospital in Ilesha and during the lock down some of the clinics in the hospital were shut down, so because of the lock down some of our the patients were not coming as usual to some  extent we had decreased number of patients to some extent, and of course it was, from my own perspective, it was as though people were patronising as before you know how all this old people can be now they come whenever they feel like coming to the hospital, and it was not like the hospital was shut down  you get, so, I can’t really  talk much about that but I know that the fact that some of those clinics were shut down  off course we had decreased number of patients compared to before the lockdown yeah we had decreased number of patients compared to before the lockdown and then, people that were being attended to were mainly emergency cases if it not an emergency you just be sent to just go and do normal routne checkup. Concerning drugs, it was regular routine drugs. People were interested in boosting their immune system. Most people who tested for Corona virus were in isolation centres so there were no reasons for them to be attended to at the pharmacies, but demand was still on  high side. People bought drug on people’s behalf. “

Food business was a saving grace; no one wanted to starve

“People bought more foodstuffs during this pandemic”, said Dr. Mrs Omilusi.  As a doctor in the academic field, Omilusi said there was little to do at work because the students she was supposed to teach were not on campus; hence, she resorted to focusing on her side business; selling foodstuff in wholesale prices.

She said, “My customers bought more food during lockdown because, well everyone had to eat. Our business was in essential services and we had a lot to deliver to customers. They buy more because staying at home without work makes someone to just eat more. My case was just a little different because my main customers were salary earners and most of them like buying on credit. But even with the credit sales. As a lot were saying they didn’t have money because of the restriction in most businesses due to curfew and lockdown, they had to rely on their monthly pay. I can say it was more of credit sales. But people were buying. Market was also filled. We were purchasing from producers, producers from farmers, farmers were not on break.

What then is to be done to get back on our feet?

In lieu of events and the end of a total lockdown that first seemed impossible, business owners, industries and individuals have kept on pushing forward, finding ways to make profits,  garner resources that would give them a boost; especially through the digital marketing strategies  of this age.

Some have resolved to just hiking the prices on their goods till they get a balance. Transport and logistics companies also increased fare but with lesser passengers on board for the former.

Director, Centre for Petroleum, Energy  Economics and Law, University of Ibadan, Professor Adeola Adenikinju, spoke extensively on measures businesses and industries could put in place to make up for the previous losses and he reiterated the fact that even though people were recovering gradually, it would still be advisable to follow through safety procedures, ensuring good customer relationship, building trust, diversifying and using on-line medium to their advantage.

Prof. Adenikinju said,  “Businesses are gradually recovering and there is still a lot of play around COVID, people are still afraid, it’s affecting night life and social life and until a solution is found to this virus maybe a vaccine,  it will be difficult to bring businesses back to where it used to be. There are elements of social distancing.  We are not fully back and we have to wait for the full recovery.

“What businesses have to do is assure a lot of consumers about the protocols they are putting in place to assure them that they won’t have problem.  They have to build their customers’ trust.

“There must also be a way of reducing costs to attract customers and getting intervention from  possible means.  Companies can utilise the federal government and CBN intervention fund.

“Some have spoken about a possible resurgence of the virus in the United States and some other places; hence,  causing reluctance in people’s hope.  Air travels are not where they used to be. People are afraid. Clients must encourage their customers to buy, reduce the cost of things, not hike prices.

“I also believe that is important to have diversified business. Event planners, for example have suffered a knock at this period because of the restrictions in social gathering.  This is a pointer to why people should diversify and not have one source of income. Then,  E-commerce should be explored. Get your products on-line and build your presence at least until things get normalised.

“It’s a challenging time but funds can be gotten from interventions  to build liabilities.”

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