Business activities in Nigeria’s Southeastern State, Enugu, on Wednesday, August 14, 2019, were grounded as insecurity engulfed some parts of the State.
In compliance with a directive by the Enugu State Amalgamated Market Traders Association (ESAMATA) and Enugu State Butchers Association (ESBA), abattoirs and perishable goods dealers’ shops, especially tomatoes, suspended their business activities.
The President of ESAMATA, Temple Ude and his ESBA counterpart, Osita Nnamani issued a joint statement, suspending commercial activities of livestock and perishable goods markets in the state on Wednesday and Thursday, August 15, 2019. The statement alerted the dealers and members of the public that there would be no sale or slaughter of cows on the said dates at the markets.
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It was however learnt that there was full compliance to the directive, as butchers and meat sellers in major markets in the state, including Ogbete Market, Mammy Market, Garki Market, Kenyatta Market and Artisan Market reportedly closed their shops.
The ripple: While the government is shouldered with the responsibility of protecting lives and properties, it is pertinent to understand that the grounding of commercial activities in the state isn’t in favour of the traders and dealers.
Nigeria is presently looking forward to growing support for local businesses as the country’s economic hardship bites harder. Abattoirs and perishable goods sellers are the linchpins of local food systems in the state. Without them, residents would not be able to purchase local, traceable meat, nor the multiple public goods associated with local food.
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This development has no doubt stalled the flow of money, as buying and purchasing of meats and other perishable items have been put on hold.
More so, traders and dealers are poised to run at a loss. In a case where some of them have their perishable items in their stores, the two days market opening suspension ordinarily means that they can’t sell their goods until the market is opened. With this, the traders’ goods might perish and in a case, to avoid that, the traders might resolve to selling the goods even way cheaper that it can only be at a loss.
