Groundnut seller needs a roof over her head

Name:  Joy Keshinro

State of Origin: Rivers State

Dependants: Three children

Business: I sell groundnuts and Ijebu garri. Before venturing into this business in 2012, I was dealing in onions and potatoes but patronage was very poor and since the goods were perishable, I made more losses than gain.

Profit: When a custard paint bucket of groundnut was sold for between N800 and N900, I used to make N1, 000 and sometimes N1, 500 profit per bucket if I was lucky. But when the price went up to N1, 500 towards the end of 2016, my profit dropped to N700 per bucket.  Some days, I buy a bucket of groundnut and discover that the bad ones after so much. That alone would further shrink my profit and I still buy bottles.

Three buckets of groundnuts took me five days to sell last year, but now, I still sell one bucket even after four days. That’s how low patronage has been so far this year.

School fees: I’m training my children one after the other because there is no money to pay their school fees. This groundnut business is our only source of income. My eldest child has just graduated and my son is in school right now. When my son graduates, my last daughter will proceed to the university.

House rent: My late husband’s friend used to give us some money to add to what we had and pay our house rent but he doesn’t do that anymore because of the hardship in the country. Two weeks ago, precisely on Friday 28th April 2017, my landlord gave us quit notice. Before the quit notice, he increased our rent from N250, 000 to N350, 000.

Survival strategy: We buy in small quantities but that is only when we have little money to spend on food items because they are so expensive now. We always fall back on garri and groundnuts whenever we don’t have money and that happens very often.

My children and I don’t eat often. We cannot afford to buy food until we sell the groundnuts, but if we don’t sell, we drink garri. Most of the times, we drink garri mixed with groundnuts. Sadly, the custard paint bucket of garri we usually buy for N400 last year is now N1, 000.

Challenges: My biggest problem now is accommodation. A place to stay with my children, pay their school fees and start another small business that will yield better returns.

CHINWE AGBEZE

If you want to contact the writer of this story call: +234(0) 803 889 1567, +234(0) 802 223 8495.   [email protected]