By Kate Halim
Sitting under their colourful umbrellas with their wares in front of them carefully arranged on wooden tables and calling out to potential customers, the anxious looks on their faces portray the current mood in the country.
These market men and women in the popular Ijesha Market in Lagos are grappling with the effects of the cash crunch that is biting harder as they struggle to make a living through their businesses. While some of the sellers are tech savvy to make sales through electronic bank transfers, others are losing money and customers at this time because they insist on collecting cash for their goods.
When Saturday Sun visited the market on Monday morning, some of the stands were empty. Others were busy arranging foodstuff, vegetables, dry fish and soup ingredients as well as pepper and tomatoes while waiting for their customers to arrive.
In her late forties, a woman who identified herself as Grace Adeniyi confessed that the cash crunch has affected her business negatively for weeks now. She stated that most of her customers started buying things from other people because she doesn’t accept payment through mobile app transfers. Shaking her head and arranging her tomatoes well, the mother of four said in smattering English that since money became scarce in the banks and the point-of-sale (POS) operators charge high commissions to give money to people, she has been recording low sales.
She said: “I do not know how to do that bank transfer thing. I don’t want these Yahoo Yahoo boys to steal my money. And the phone number that I used in opening my bank account years back is no longer the one I use now. I have not got the chance to go change my phone number at the bank. As I am now, I’m not sure that I can go to the market to buy things once I finish selling my stock, because people did not buy my goods properly, as they had little or no cash.”
While speaking to the reporter, a woman beckoned on her to sell tomatoes and peppers to her. Mrs Adeniyi quickly asked the potential customer if she had cash, but the woman said no. The woman said she would pay with her bank card. Disappointed, Mrs Adeniyi told her that she didn’t have a POS machine and pointed her in the direction of her neighbour opposite the road who was accepting payment through bank transfers and POS.
“Did you see what I was telling you now,” she asked in her smattering English. This woman is my big customer, but I cannot sell stuf to her now because she has no cash. I’m just praying that this thing would end so that I would not lose all my customers finish.”
Three stands away from Mrs Adeniyi stood Divine Egbokhan’s stand. The graduate of sociology told Saturday Sun that initially when the cash crunch started, she was accepting mobile bank transfers but when she noticed that she didn’t get some of the credit alerts hours and days after the transactions were made, she stopped doing that.
Sighing and looking lost, Egbokan revealed that she stays in the stand for her mother who has been ill for months and she is not making enough sales for the family to feed and pay for her mother’s treatment. “I lost my father when I was 16 years old. I have two younger siblings who are still in secondary school. My mother sells soup ingredients and vegetables and that is what we rely on to feed, clothe and go to school. I graduated two years ago but since I haven’t gotten a job yet, I assist my mother in the market.”
Narrating further, the young lady said: “My mom suddenly became ill and I have to take up the responsibility of being the breadwinner. I take care of her and my siblings. But this cash crunch is making things difficult for us. Some of my customers have begged me to give them things without payment so that when they get cash, they can pay but I can’t do that because I need cash to restock and buy my mother’s drugs.”
Egbokan also said that the reason she stopped accepting bank transfers was because of dishonesty on the part of some of her customers. She revealed that three payments made by her customers haven’t been reflected in her bank account and when she confronted them about it, they became defensive and threatened to stop buying things from her. “I don’t want to believe they scammed me but if that is the case, may God judge them. I have told them to pay me cash for what they bought but they are still claiming that they have paid me and can’t make the payment twice.”
Sylvester Etieno runs a buka, a local canteen in Aguda, Surulere. He revealed that last week, he ran out of ingredients to prepare the different foods he sells and locked his shop. “The stress of going to the market and getting ingredients became too much. My customers insist on paying through POS or mobile bank transfers and most of the market women I buy things from don’t have POS machines or accept bank transfers.”
Etieno who started running his business two years ago said this period has been the most trying time for him. He lamented that the cash crunch was making him lose customers. He added that his buka was no longer as busy as it used to be last month and the months before. “The lack of cash in circulation is slowly killing my business. Government should please do something and help us. If this thing continues, I might have to take a break and resume my business when things have normalised. Sometimes, my customers will make transfers and I won’t get the credit alert because the network is busy. This is not funny anymore. I am a family man and I have financial responsibilities at home.”
Rose Akabogu sells frozen chicken and fish at Coker Market. When asked how the cash crunch has affected her business, she almost burst into tears. Popularly known in the area as Nwanyi Nnewi, the mother of two said that the lack of cash has reduced her sales in weeks.
Her words: ‘I don’t know how this government wants us to survive the kind of hardship they are unleashing on us. How come there is no money for us to withdraw from banks? How can we have money in our bank accounts but we can’t withdraw it? How can I spend hours in the queue in a bank and get only N3,000? It is not fair,” she lamented.
Akabogu revealed that her customers have reduced in recent weeks. She added that those who still patronise her insist on making transfers because the bank charges are cheaper than what they can get from POS operators in the market.
“Look at this market today, everywhere is dry. Before, if you come here, you will see people trooping from one stand to another, but this naira wahala has spoilt everything. Last week, I almost fought one of my customers because he made a payment with a bank transfer and I didn’t get the alert until after three days. I saw him the next day and started accusing him of scamming me. I had to apologise to him profusely after I got the alert. This is not a good time for business people.”
Opeyemi Salihu is not happy about the naira crunch and how her business has been going down because of it. Looking stressed and sad while arranging bread, provisions, and soft drinks, Salihu said she has been a businesswoman for almost ten years and the only time she experienced such hardship was during the COVID-19 time. She added that the stress of the cash crunch has started affecting her health.
“In the past, my bread doesn’t last three days because I sell them out fast. Now, they have been in my shop for almost seven days because I don’t accept payment through mobile app transfer. I don’t want people to scam me because many people are dishonest. Many people don’t patronise me anymore in this neighbourhood and I don’t blame them. But how do I feed my family and restock my shop,” she queried.
A young man who sells tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, and bell peppers with a barrow in Aguda market, who simply identified himself as Ismail, said that the last three weeks have been hard for him because, as he said, he has been recording low sales. He added that in the past, he would have sold all his goods by 7 pm but these days, he would stay by the roadside till 10 pm. Yet, he would still not finish selling all his goods. He noted that the cash crunch was doing more harm than good and appealed to the banks to help business people like him to remain in business.
Narrating his frustration in Pidgin English, Ismail said: “I have not been selling my stuff as I used to. People say they do not have money to buy things. I would stay here until night time, yet I would not finish selling all my stuff. My tomato and pepper just keep getting spoilt. If I want to go to the bank to collect money, I wouldn’t be able to do it because there are always too many people in the bank that want to collect money. I want this cash crisis to end so that I can be making money like I used to in times past. Let the bank people help us and allow us access to our money.”