‘The more I put money in my business, the more unprofitable it is’

Petty traders in the creeks of the Niger Delta are not smiling. Heavy blows of pump price increase and naira depreciation both results of unfriendly economic policies of the Nigerian government are their torment.

Although her children are grown up and married, Mrs Pat Amajatoja has her retired husband and herself to cater for. Being in her late 50s, she also has to keep body and soul together by engaging in one trade or the other. She sells articles like biscuits, groundnuts, sweets, and the like under an umbrella in the heart of Warri.

“My name is Pat Amajatoja, I’m from Warri South Local Government Area, Delta State. I am married and have six grown up children. I am close to 60 years.

“I just started this business about a year ago. I was previously selling fish in the market and I also owned a provision shop at Ekpan, Uvwie Local Government Area.

“I had to leave Ekpan and my business because of the incessant crisis in the community. I don’t have a small child, as all my children are married with kids.

“I am living with my husband here in Warri. My husband is very old and he has retired, so this business is what we are using to sustain ourselves. But the business is tiring with the increase of prices of things in the market,” she lamented.

With her aged husband and herself to cater for, the economic downturn in the country is threatening their means of livelihood and she cannot keep sealed lips.

“You can see the things I am selling which include groundnuts, mangoes, tapioca and biscuits. With these wares, you will agree that what I make a day is very meager, but I have no choice.

“I cannot sit at home idle, and that is why I am out here hustling. I put money into this business every month, but it seems the more I am putting money, the more unprofitable it is becoming because of the increase in prices of every commodity in the market.

“Sometimes, I buy cartons of biscuits and I will make only N100 profit. As for the tapioca, this size (holding a small-size tapioca) was not up to N20 before, but now, it is sold for N100. Eat 10 wraps of this, you won’t be satisfied!

“As a trader, what I spend is more than what I make from my business. I buy a carton of biscuits for N4,000 today and a month later, the cost price rises to N6,000.

“When I complain, the person I complain to will also complain that that was the price she bought it,” Mrs Amajatoja further lamented.

She wondered why the government at various levels hardly paid attention to the suffering and cry of the common man.

“Government is well aware of what to do to ease the suffering of the masses. People complain everyday, but they have chosen to pay deaf ears to people’s complaints and tears.

“Even with that, I will still plead with them to have mercy on the poor.

“How can I take N6,000 to the market to buy foodstuff and come back home with a sad expression because I can’t make sense of what I spent my money on?

“So, tell the government to please do something, and urgently, too, before things get out of hand. The poor are dying in instalments out of hunger and privation. Tell them ordinary Nigerians are dying by the day,” she pleaded.

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