From Timothy Olanrewaju, Maiduguri
The naira crunch is still ravaging businesses and their operators in Kebbi State. Investigation indicated a sharp drop in the volume of recorded transactions.
It was particularly observed that the controversial naira redesign policy impacted negatively on the buying and selling of animals such as cattle, donkeys, goats and rams.
Ambursa Market, also known as Sunday Cattle Market, is located along Birnin-Kebbi/Arugungu Road. It used to be a lively selling post for these animals, attracting sellers and buyers from Southern Nigeria.
Today, the market has turned to a ghost of its old self, almost desolate.
Those who previously purchased 20 cows, 100 rams and many goats have been forced to buy lesser numbers, sometimes as low as two cows, five rams and seven goats due to the withdrawal limit placed by banks.
Many of the cattle sellers regretted that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not take their peculiar situation into consideration when formulating the cashless policy, insisting that even after CBN had seen the weaknesses of the policy, it was reluctant to make adjustments.
Amodu Usman told Daily Sun:
“Many of us are from rural communities. We have no account in any bank. We expect that whosoever comes to the market to buy from us must come with cash. People who do business with us know this.
“This cashless policy has brought frustrations, pains, lack of sales and even indebtedness among our members. Many of us are indebted to our food vendors. We have been eating on credit but can no longer pay.
Some can’t settle their bills before the end of the market day like we used to do.”
A cattle retailer, Mallam Umar Uban Turaku, said: “In this market, we used to do business transactions of at least N100 million daily.
“But now we can’t even boast of N10 million due to cash crunch.
“Before, there would be no place to pass here. Everywhere would be filled up with cows. But you can see a lot of spaces that you can run in and out from here. It is really bad.
“Due to the transfer issues, many a time the cow owners return their cattle home and represent them to the market the next market day for buyers who have cash.
“We just want to appeal to the government to abolish this cashless policy. It is killing us, killing our daily means of surviving.
“We are traders in the rural market, we are used to our transactions through cash, physical money not through transfer on the Internet.”
A revenue collector in the market, Malami Tsoho Ambursa lamented: “The traders these days don’t get a quarter of the volume of their previous transactions.
We usually collect N400 to N500 on the sales of five or four cows.
“But now, these traders hardly even sell one cow per market day. So what can we do? We want the government to assist us by making cash available at the banks.
“Otherwise, our weekly collections will remain low. We cannot force them to pay revenue on items not sold.”
Muhammadu Maitumaki Ambursa, expressed frustration over his inability to sell his sheep and rams. He blamed it on the cashless policy: “This has affected the free flow of demands and supply.”