By Mike Adeyemi
Traders at Gambari markets in Ilorin East Local Government Area of Kwara State have decried poor sales since the partial lifting of lockdown in the state.
Speaking to our Reporter, the Vice President of Gambari Market Association, Mallam Jinadu Mohammed stressed that there has been lull in business activities post lockdown.
According to him, “traders in the state are yet to get over the hardship caused by the three months lockdown as a results Covid-19 pandemic.
“What I mean is that our businesses went down. We were unable to ply our trades while the lockdown lasted. And all the pledges made to us by the Kwara State Government are yet to be fulfilled,” he added.
Jinadu added that traders at the market lost millions of naira to the lockdown.
“Traders at Gambari markets lost millions of naira to the effect of lockdown and some of us took loan from micro finance banks and were unable to pay back.
“We only survived on our capital as there were no sales and the capital was loan obtained from Micro finance banks and soft loans accessed, which has now become serious burden on us.
“Business activities have not returned to normal as a result of the damages the lockdown had caused to almost all sectors of Kwara economy. The loss cannot be quantified in monetary terms.
“Things are not going on fine. It has been bad with no support from the Kwara State Government,” Jinadu stressed.
He however described the emergence of factions among market traders in the state as a good omen.
“Yes, crisis and factionalism do happen in every clime. Crisis is part of human management and when there are issues like that it indicates progress. So issues and crises are bound to happen in any goal oriented society,” he concluded.
In the same vein, the vice Iyaloja of Gambari, Mrs. Taiye Gobiri lamented that inspite of the hardship traders went through during the lockdown the Kwara State Government did not come to their aid.
“The lockdown period was tough for us, nobody came to our aid. We went to the Government House for palliative but we were driven back.
“The only palliative we got was from our leaders under the leadership of Iyaloja General, Adenike Lambe.”
