Fruit sellers in Jos, the administrative capital and largest city of Nigeria’s Plateau State, are speaking of poor sales due to the total lockdown imposed by the state government.

The traders lamented that following the lockdown, which resulted in low turn-out of customers, they were left with many rotten fruits.

Abdulqadir Ya’u, Chairman of Fruit Sellers Association at Bauchi Motor Park, lament that many of them had recorded losses due to the low patronage. “Honestly, since the start of the lockdown, we have been recording losses because we will hardly exhaust our stock during the easing period, which spans two to three days. Whatever remains after the break would surely go rotten. This is a big challenge to us in this business in Jos.

Another trader, Zakari Audu, said the lockdown exercise was seriously affecting their sales since their customers were not being allowed to go for their businesses to enable them to source for money to buy foods and other needs. He said: “We sold more before the commencement of lockdown because customers don’t have money to buy and that is why the business is not booming now. People would like to buy but they don’t have money and you can’t give them away for free.

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Fruit sellers lament drop in sales and losses due to the lockdown.