Naira Scarcity: Bauchi petty traders cry out over losses
Some petty traders in Bauchi have expressed worry over the losses they currently incur in their daily transactions.
A cross-section of the people, who spoke in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi, blamed the development on the scarcity of the new naira notes.
They said that the difficulties faced in accessing the new notes drastically affected business generally in the area.
Mrs Fatima Danjuma, a soya bean cake maker, said she was finding it difficult to make enough sales to fend for her family.
She said that businesses had stagnated in the state.
Danjuma said: “I have N4,000 as my capital and paid N400 as Point of Sale (POS) charge after visiting four POS operators.
“I don’t have enough money to buy firewood to make enough soya bean cake to meet my customers’ demand.
A firewood seller, Mrs Halima Turaki, said that she made her purchases via her daughter’s account because she did not have enough cash.
According to her, inability to access the naira notes had affected her business.
“The naira swap has made business difficult because the lower denomination is scarce, so prospective buyers usually go to other sellers due to the lack of change.
Also, a local drink dealer, Mrs Victoria Andrew, said that it was becoming hard for her to exhaust her daily production due to a drastic fall in patronage.
“It is unfortunate that I now record unsold daily because of the scarcity of the new naira notes and attendant low sales,” Andrew said.
She blamed the situation on the lack of lower denominations had affected daily sales, leading to great losses.
An ice block seller, Mr Faizu Mohammed, said that the present weather condition in the state makes for brisk business but regretted that the cash policy had caused a major setback in her business.
“Our product is sold in lower denominations, so we lose money daily because people don’t even have cash to buy and providing them change is another serious problem,” she said.
Mohammed charged the Central Bank of Nigeria to supply adequate naira notes in lower denominations, including N100, N50, N20 to help their businesses.
