BUSINESS
Waterleaf Farmers, Sellers Down Tools, Plan Price Increase in Calabar
Waterleaf farmers, sellers have downed tools to drive home their demand on their planned increase in price of the vegetable botanically known as Talinum Frutiscon or Talinum triangular banning its sales in major markets of Calabar till Monday.
It was also gathered that anyone caught selling the vegetable in any market will be arrested by their Union and fined 10,000.
When our Correspondent visited some of the clusters( farms) around New Airport, Inyansang, Jonathan Bypass,8 miles, Cross River River Basin( Technical Junction, LEMNA where these farmers have large acres covered by the plant, they said it was high time they shared the burden of price increase of input with consumers.Findings showed that due to the large consumption of the vegetable, the demand is high in Calabar as it is mostly used to as a “softener” when cooking other leaves like Afang ( okazi) known as (Gnetum africanum), fluted pumpkin (Telferia occidentalis), Atama amongst others.
Speaking with newsmen at the weekend in her farm at Inyansang, Madam Matilda Inyang said she has been planting water leaf for decades but since 2015 a lot has changed.
Her words:” The stem that we used to buy for 3,500 per bag has increased, fertilizer has increased, poultry manure too is now expensive. We cannot continue to bear these costs alone, we have to start selling at a higher price to cover our production cost. “This is part of the reason we decided to down tools to make our stand known and as from Monday we will start selling at 100 naira per bunch from 50 naira. “We now buy bag of poultry dung ( 25kg) for 300 naira, now is about 1,000 naira, for those who use fertilizer same thing, it has also increased, while the stem of the waterleaf per bag before now was 3,500, but now it’s between 6,000 to 7,000 naira,” she said.
Another farmer, who pleaded anonymity said that prices of goods and services keep soaring ,yet they maintained theirs. She hinted that transporting their input from the rural areas to their farms was no longer the same adding that every other item on their list has been increased and that they too are members of the same communities and their farm produce should also alleviate their poverty.
“We suffer a lot in making sure that waterleaf is abundantly available in the markets, it’s even worse due to dry season, we need more water to keep the vegetable fresh to also get the best results. “The reason we decided to raise that price is to be able to meet up with all these bills, we are not happy it is going to be increased ,but we are not also happy as what we spent and efforts we put in ate not commensurate to the little we make as profit,” she lamented.
Mrs Joy Bajie who resides at 8 miles, said as at Saturday, they could not find the vegetable in 8 miles market, many people had trooped in from the metropolis to buy up the ones at 8 miles since Friday. She went further to say that the dry season was partially responsible adding that the rainy season might change all that. “Their protest for a price increase is not totally bad, because the stem and other things they use have increased, but I don’t think the timing is right, because the economy is really biting hard at the moment, for crying out loud, this is January,” she said.
Efforts to reach the Union head of the Association of waterleaf Farmers and sellers proved abortive. According to an impeccable source close to the leadership of the body, they don’t want to be intimidated by officials, hence they decided to keep the drive for non-sales in major market simple but effective. As at the time of filing this report, there was scarcity of water leaf in major markets including Watt market, Marian Market, Atakpa Market, Atimbo market and so on.
The Nigerian Exchange Ltd. (NGX) continued its bullish trend on Wednesday, gaining N183 billion.
Accordingly, the market capitalisation, which opened at N59.532 trillion, gained N184 billion or 0.31 per cent to close at N59.715 trillion.
The All-Share Index also added 0.31 per cent or 303 points, to settle at 98,509.
68, against 98,206. 97 recorded on Tuesday.Consequently, the Year-To-Date (YTD) return increased to 31.
74 per cent.Gains in Aradel Holdings, Zenith Bank, United Bank For Africa(UBA), Oando Plc, Nigerian Breweries among other advanced equities drove the market performance up.
Market breadth closed positive with 34 gainers and 17 losers.
On the gainers’ chart, Africa Prudential, Conoil and RT Briscoe led by 10 per cent each to close at N14.30, N352 and N2.42 per share, respectively.
Golden Guinea Breweries followed by 9.95 per cent to close at N7.18, while NEM Insurance rose by 9.74 per cent to close at N10.70 per share.
On the other hand, Julius Berger led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent to close at N155.25, Secure Electronic Technology Plc trailed by 9.52 per cent to close at 57k per share.
Multiverse lost 7.63 per cent to close at N5.45, Haldane McCall dropped 6.07 per cent to close at N4.95 and Honeywell Flour shed 5.62 per cent to close at N4.70 per share.
Analysis of the market activities showed trade turnover settled lower relative to the previous session, with the value of transactions down by 49.44 per cent.
A total of 320.10 million shares valued at N6.48 billion were exchanged in 7,943 deals, compared with 939.41 million shares valued at N12.81billion traded in 9,098 deals posted in the previous session.
Meanwhile, ETranzact led the activity chart in volume with 70.27 million shares, while Aradel led in value of deals worth N1.22 billion.(NAN)
The central parity rate of the Chinese currency renminbi, or the Yuan, weakened 22 pips to 7.1870 against the dollar on Monday.This is according to the China Foreign Exchange Trade System.In China’s spot foreign exchange market, the Yuan is allowed to rise or fall by two per cent from the central parity rate each trading day.
The central parity rate of the Yuan against the dollar is based on a weighted average of prices offered by market makers before the opening of the interbank market each business day. (Xinhua/NAN)
Arewa Youths Initiative for Energy Reforms (AYIFER), has urged Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) to do everything possible to bring Kaduna Refinery back into operation.
National Coordinator of the group, Mr Bashir Al’Amin, stated this in a statement issued on Friday in Abuja.
Al’Amin specifically called on the Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, Mallam Mele Kyari, to do all within his powers to rejuvenate the refinery and bring it up to global standard.
He said that having delivered the Port Harcourt refinery, coupled with the establishment of Dangote Refinery in Lagos, attention should be shifted to Kaduna refinery for easy spread of petroleum products.
“We are calling on Malam Mele Kyari to expedite action on Kaduna refinery so we can be at par with other regions in the country.
“We equally beg the NNPCL to do professional work in rehabilitating the old refinery and deliver a standard and functional petrochemical refinery and not a blending plant.
“Kyari should resist any temptation that could make him do something that can jeopardise his good image,” he said.
Al’Amin said that since the extinction of groundnut pyramid and textiles in Kano State as well as PAN in Kaduna State and with the Kaduna refinery getting moribund, a lot of youths had lost their jobs.
According to him, all their hopes in the north are tied to the legacy refinery, expressing the hope that God would use Kyari to deliver it well and on time.
He said that the group was solidly behind NNPCL in prayer and would be ready to celebrate the company if its expectations were met. (NAN)
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