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.
(NAN)
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