NAN-H-70
Phones
By Constance Athekame
Abuja, Oct. 12, 2017 (NAN) Mobile phone dealers at the GSM Village in Abuja have appealed to the Federal Government to assist them with soft loans to keep their businesses afloat.
Some of the dealers, who spoke with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Thursday, said that the appeal became necessary to enable them have capital to keep their businesses from “shutting down’’.
Mr Victor Ezedike, the Vice Chairman, Taskforce, GSM Village told NAN that government was supposed to assist and encourage small business owners with soft loan to boost their businesses with the economic downturn.
He said that the economy was still down in spite of the claim that the country was out of recession, adding that access to finance was therefore imperative to keep small businesses afloat.
Ezedike however called on the government to make access to soft loans easy with single digit interest to enable them pay back quickly.
“I am aware that the government usually gives loans through banks but most banks use such money on other projects without giving it to the right people.
“We are therefore appealing to government to give us the loans directly.
“Government has to be serious about the issue and if they are giving out loans they should find a way of reaching out to the recipients directly.
“Instead of giving it to commercial banks or micro-finance banks that will give it to those that do not need it,’’ he said.
Another dealer, Mr Abubakar Sadiq also called on the government to assist the dealers with soft loans, saying a lot of people doing business in the market did not have working capital.
“If government can come to our aid by giving us soft loans it will assist us in our business.
“We are also appealing to government to give us a permanent place because the GSM village is temporary,’’ he said.
Mr John Ede, the Managing Director, Ezeudu Communications, also a phone dealer, said that the prices of phones had dropped but not like it used to be before the increase in FOREX.
He said that before the FOREX increase, a Nokia phone, which was sold for N3, 500, went up to 11, 000 but had now gone down to N6,000.
He said other phones had equally dropped and appealed to government to assist the dealers by ensuring the stability of FOREX rate to enable the poor people purchase phones.
“We are appealing to government to assist us so that everybody can have phone, we are also appealing to government to assist us in accessing loans to make life easy for us,’’ he said.
Mr Paul Okafor, a retailer also called for financial assistance from the government, saying it would help his business greatly.
He said that since he graduated from school six years ago, he had engaged himself in the phone business but did not have enough working capital to sustain the business.
He also expressed delight that prices of phones had dropped, adding that the development was good for his business because of the economic hardship.
“But the problem traders are facing is low turnout of customers because of the hardship being experienced by Nigerians.
“Even with the drop in prices of phones, there are still no customers. I am sure it is because of the hardship faced by Nigerians,’’ he said. (NAN)
COA/AK/GY
==========
Edited by Akin Makanjuola/Grace Yussuf