Scarcity Of Cash Crashes Prices Of Chickens At Nsukka

The present scarcity of new naira notes in the country has crashed prices of chickens at Nsukka by over fifty percent. A survey conducted by THE WHISTLER at Ikpa market of the university community on Monday shows that the dealers are having ‘bad market’ as they are forced to sell at highly reduced prices provided the buyer has physical cash.

A poultry farmer, Onyinye Okeke, told our correspondent that she has lost her investments in the business following non-availability of cash.

She said, “If I don’t sell them, I don’t have money to buy the feed. So I will lose all. Before this policy, each fowl you see here sold for N9,000. But I now beg even to sell each N4,500. I have smaller ones in the house that I must feed. Some have died. You won’t understand my problem. Sellers of feed want cash before they release their goods. The chickens I brought to the market have lost weight in the past three days because of poor feeding.”

Another seller, Chimaka Ogbodo, said, “This is unfair. I don’t do cash transfer. When they said we must change our money to the new notes, and gave the deadline, I gave my money to my son to put in his account. But he can’t get the money back. He was given N2,000 out of N55,000 I gave him. I can’t use N2,000 to buy a bag of grower mash. So I have brought the chickens to sell.
“But there are no buyers. Those that come are saying they want to transfer. But I won’t agree because it is like keeping the money in prison. I hope that this problem will be over soon.”

A lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Dr. Anayochukwu Ositadimma, was seen purchasing chickens. He told our correspondent that, “There seems to be deception in the new naira note exercise. I bought three chickens today at N11,000. Those chickens ordinarily would go for N8,000 each. I managed to get some money last night. I spread my money across my three bank accounts and was able to withdraw N60,000.

“That’s why I could buy many things at their cheapest rates. But how many people will be lucky like me? Prices of everything have crashed because of this new naira note scarcity.”

A feed dealer at the same market, Jerome Eya, said his business had collapsed. In her words, “If I accept cash transfers, during the withdrawal from POS operators, I lose everything. To withdraw N5,000, the charge is at least N1,000. And if I choose to go to ATM points, I will spend the whole day withdrawing N20,000 only. So, the pains are much.”

A POS operator, who does not want to be mentioned, said, “There is nothing we can do. I get money from banks directly. But I pay heavily, which I have to get back by charging my customers higher, otherwise, the business will die. Ask our leaders to ask banks why they divert the new notes to politicians and individuals who bribe them instead of allowing their withdrawal in the normal banking sector.”