Livestock dealers in Kaduna on Thursday complained of low patronage for rams, barely a week to the Eid-el-Kabir celebrations.
A cross section of the dealers, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria in Kaduna, blamed the development on the nation’s economic downturn which affected this year’s business.
They complained that patronage had drastically dropped when compared to the same period of the celebration in 2014.
Malam
Abdullahi Audu, a dealer in rams, said he had been able to sell only one
ram since the beginning of the week which was not the case last year.
“During
the same period of the 2014 Eid-El-Kabir, I sold between 15 and 20 rams
daily but the case is different this year. I have only been able to sell
one for the past three days,” he said.
Audu
attributed the low sales to less money in circulation, compared to the
same period last year, stressing that the situation was due to the
change in government.
He commended the Federal Government for the efforts at restructuring the economy for the benefit of the majority of Nigerians.
Another
dealer, Ismaila Abdulazeez, said low sales were being recorded, in spite
of the low prices of the animals, adding that “the ram market
(business) is not moving at all.”
“The most annoying thing is the fact that I did not increase the price of the rams.
“Small
rams are still sold for N7,500; medium size for N15,000 while the big
ones are sold for N30,000, yet there is still low patronage,” he said.
The story
was not different for Muhammed Auwal, also a ram seller, who said
customers only came for window shopping, bargaining and promised to
return but never showed up.
“Some of
the customers complained of economic instability, unlike last year when
only one customer bought about 10 or more rams at a go,” Auwal said.
The
dealers, however, expressed hope that with the directives of the Federal
Government for the immediate payment of salary arrears to workers, the
patronage on their market would improve.
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