Amid growing frustration over the scarcity of redesigned high denomination currencies nationwide, female traders in Bauchi State have bemoaned how inadequate naira circulation crumbles their businesses, plunging them deep into poverty, Wikkitimes can report.
The women said running their businesses is no longer profitable as thy depended on proceeds accrued from the ventures for family upkeep.
“No business when there is no cash circulating among people,” Charity Adamawa, a trader in Wunti Market decried.
“We don’t accept fund transfers from anybody who patronised us because we don’t know them as the transfer can bounce back after the customer must have left with your goods.”
“My family is critically affected. I struggled to take care of the family because my husband, who sells timber is out of business already,” she added.
Charity told newsmen that gone are the days when she counts profit because she makes low sales daily, which oftentimes, is far below meeting the daily expense of her family’s needs.
She said while some tech-savvy women traders in the market make efforts to acquire Point of Sale (POS) machines, it proves to be hard because the device is expensive and beyond their reach at a time when women traders in the market open shops while time.
“I want to buy POS for my shop but I cannot afford it. I was told that I must pay N20,000 to get one. My business cannot raise this humongous amount at this time,” she said.
“Since the start of the currency swap, the number of customers willing to make card payments to us increased. Most of the time when they come and you don’t have POS they left leaving you with your goods stranded hopelessly,” Charity added.
To 45-year-old Roda who sells spices, she lives between hand to mouth in recent weeks. She wails that nothing moves around her.
Roda said at the moment, it is not feasible for her to pay school fees for her two children, something she does with ease last year.
“My business is crumbling before my own eyes. I cannot believe it to see my source of livelihood stumble.
“My children are at home without attending school because I cannot raise money to pay their school fees since this naira wahala started.
“People are not coming to patronise us. We open for business but no one approached us to buy something. And this makes business these days unprofitable,” said Roda as she waves her hand into the air.Women Leader, Wunti Market, Hajiya Zainab Isma’il revealed that a lot of women traders are out of business since the start of the naira redesign policy.
According to her, many widows who run petty businesses to maintain their families are increasingly becoming incapacitated as their ventures no longer put food on their tables.
The women leader noted that women traders are going through a lot of hardships.
Zainab demands a further review of the policy to avert inflicting severe damage to businesses. “Government is aware of our sufferings,” she stressed.
“Let them do the needful to be content with the situation. It does not need to be told of that.”
