By Godwin Tyonongu
But for the relocation of the popular Orange Market to a permanent site, goat dealers in Mararaba town would have been groaning due to the lack of patronage, no thanks to the lingering economic crunch in the country.
Chairman of the Sauki Goat Dealers Association (SGDA), Mararaba, a town under Karu local government area, bordering Abuja, Alhaji Haruna Ibrahim, stated this recently in a chat with Blueprint on the current market trends and the harsh economic realities.
The goat sellers lamented that even prior to the current economic situation, they were having it difficult in terms of sales until the month ending when workers would have collected salaries, noting that succour came their way shortly after the Orange Market was relocated to another side of Mararaba thereby giving them an advantage, as passersby and other traders going to the new market had choice than to turn their direction to where livestock were already on display.
He disclosed that initially they were just suffering in silence because, according to him, customers were not forthcoming a situation which forced them to a times slaughter the livestock to sell leading to losses on their part.
He also said: “If you go to Bauchi, Jigawa or Zamfara states to buy goats, for you to convey it to Mararaba as at last count, it was N80, 000 to N75, 000, but at the moment it’s N110, 000; we used to pay levy of N200 per goat in the market but now it has moved up to N500; an average goat cost N10, 000 initially, but now as increased to N15, or N6, 000 as the case may be.
“But we thank God because last year those that came to the defunct orange market did not know about the existence of a livestock market here, we are happy that we are now visible to be seen by everyone passing by .
“Again, we used to have issues of extortion with police and the army on the road while transporting our livestock from the northern states, but they have also soft pedal; now even if you give them a little token, they collect; but if you failed totally to give, they used to molest us as Boko Haram.
Secretary of the association, Abdullahi Ibrahim Zamfara, said: “Our livestock are being supervised by the veterinary doctors almost on weekly basis, making sure the goats and rams are vaccinated. The local government revenue officials used to visit us daily for revenue collection but we have no issues with them.”
