Brave Dickson
Sellers of roasted meats popularly called suya have lamented economic losses during the recent state wide curfew in Rivers State.
The curfew which was lifted on Wednesday by Governor Nyesom Wike was imposed two months ago on the state to curb the spate of attacks on security agents and formations by unknown gunmen.
Speaking with our correspondent, some suya sellers in Port Harcourt, Obio/Akpor and Akuku-Toru Local Government Areas of the state all maintained that the curfew crumbled their suya business
Mustapha Lawal said, “during the curfew, I couldn’t make profit because in this our business, only when you sell good quantity of meat you can get profit.
“Since I couldn’t make profit because of the curfew, my capital got sunk into the business and I don’t think I can resume now.
“I am looking for capital and when I get it, I will resume and I will never again do suya business if night curfew is imposed in the area I am operating. Our kind of business is fully night business.”
Aliyu Abubakar said, “here in Abonnema, electricity is not encouraging. During the curfew, I could not sell as I used to, so I began to refrigerate my meats and a lot of my meat got bad taste due to power blackout.
“I had to borrow some money to enable me buy more meat and Allah is helping me to pay my creditor little by little.”
Sani Ahmed said, “our peak selling time is from 9pm down and there is no way the just ended curfew could do us good but we thank Allah for everything.
“My experience in suya business has taught me not to rely on suya alone during curfew. I was able to help myself with other business during the curfew which I used to cover for the losses I incurred in my suya business.”
Report has it that some other businesses in the state also suffered economic losses especially the small scale and medium enterprises.
