Heroines without titles

…story of petty-trader mothers who raise CEOsAs individuals and groups in Nigeria lavish awards and encomium on deserving continent’s women like the Ngozi Okonjo-Iwealas and the Aruma Otehs of this world for their outstanding successes in the formal sector of the nation’s sector, their counterparts in the informal sector are traditionally neglected, although they are behind the success stories of many company chief executive officers (CEOs).

One of such CEOs is a former news editor, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) and founder and chief executive officer, Channels Television, John Momoh, who acknowledged in an interview that his mother not only involved in petty-trading to pay his school fees, but that watching his mother in petty business was the beginning of his own success.

“Let me backtrack to when I was growing up. My mother didn’t go to school. So, she was a petty-trader. I watched her in the art of trading, how she was able to get her wares laid out on the table and how she sold them. There were times when I had to work for her of course, so that we could pay our school fees”, he said.

These petty-traders who are numbered in the informal sector of the economy are among the early risers and the last to go to bed. In the sun they are there. In the rain they are there. They are rugged. Some got their hands burnt while roasting corn and plantain for sale to sustain their families. Others carry loads of goods on their heads for several hours in order to survive in the cities.

Sources who spoke with BD SUNDAY were overwhelmed that these unnoticed mothers whom they term ‘resilient entrepreneurs’, are not only successful business people, but are equally human capacity builders in the home front whose achievements are sadly ignored by contemporary society.

“They are home managers”, said John Orhewere, a three-time head of department and currently, principal lecturer, Federal Polytechnic, Auchi, Edo State, in an interview with our correspondent.

“Many CEOs are products of these petty traders”, he continued. “Some of these women, as widows, solely financed their children education up to tertiary levels. Some are breadwinners in the absence of a responsible father or due to loss of job. Words cannot qualify their contributions to national development. My mother was a serious entrepreneur whose contribution brought me to where I am today. I had never seen the issue you are raising in this perspective before now. It’s funny how we can collectively forget the labour of such mothers and never acknowledge them in terms of awards like their elitist counterparts in the formal sector of the economy,” he said.

Their stories
Tina Michael, 50-year old mother of six children, is one of such women in Lagos. She told BD SUNDAY that she was happy for being able to survive the hard labour. She said there are times she would remember the suffering and pain of hawking and she would feel very sad.

“Whenever our children are sick for instance, I just take them to the hospital without waiting for my husband; and some other minor domestic expenses. It is not really easy. There are times I make profits and some other times you may even be losing money. The profits I make are also not regular. Sometimes, I made up to N3, 000 gain per day and when there are low sales, I make within the range of N700 to N1, 000,” she said.

“I have been a food seller right from the time of Maroko before its demolition in 1990”, said 61-year old Mary Ehiosun, yam seller in Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos.

“Sometimes, there are sales and other times there are no sales. If you go to the market and there is nothing to buy, you would have wasted the money you used to transport yourself for that day. Things are even now getting worse. We are really fighting to survive. The Lagos State government has really made things worse with their policies. We pay to the government for the land on which we sell yams.

Sometimes, officials of Kick Against Indiscipline (KIA) would carry our wares to Aluasa because they said it is illegal for us to sell here. Sometimes, we pay up to N50, 000 before we are able to get our goods back. If you cannot produce the money in order for you to have your goods back, you will forfeit it to the government. The money they have been collecting from us where is it going? For us widows, we have no other choice than to continue to fight. Otherwise, we would die in hunger. It is out of this business I pay my children’s school fees and buy their books,” she told BD SUNDAY.

According to her, when her husband was alive, he was working but his salary was too paltry to take care of the family and that her sales were the main sustainer of the family.

“His salary never lasted more than two weeks. I supported him and the family with my business. Now that he is dead, it is the same market that I am holding on to. Things are costlier now and are becoming out of reach for people like us. Things would have been more difficult since my husband died but for this market. If I don’t go to market in a day, I will be saying: ‘I should have made so and so’. It is all because of the children”, she said.

The Edo-born Mrs. Ehiosun further said she had moved from one petty-trading to another since she got married to her late husband, Mr. Ehiosun, over 33 years.

“I lost my mother when I was very small. That was how I started taking care of my siblings before I got married. I entered into trading so that I could support my husband. I did not have a formal training in trading. I just entered with faith and God has really blessed me through it.

“I spend more than N50, 000 in a month to keep my family. Sometimes, I lose money because of the expenses. What I did was to join daily contribution (known in Lagos as Ajo), and I contribute N500 daily to that purse; and at the end of the month I have N15, 000 saved as a result of that,” she said.

Sade Oloruntimileyin, 59, a widow and indigene of Ogun State, vegetable trader in Mile 2, boasted that the African woman is naturally a fighter who is inspired by the desire to see her family gets better, and that in spite of the harsh business environment in Nigeria, she has succeeded in raising children who are doing well in their chosen carrier.
“When my husband died in 1994, I was pushed beyond limit because there was nobody I could run to for financial assistance. You know when a husband dies many people would usually be thronging around his widow and the children and making all sorts of promises they would never redeem. I was prepared psychologically to face the challenge. Who am I going to leave my children for? Even when my husband was alive, I was contributing to the family purse,” she said in Yoruba language.

According to her, the name “Oloruntimileyin” (Yoruba word meaning ‘God is pushing me from behind’) has really been a motivating factor in most instances for her; and advised that parents should be careful the kind of names they give to their children.

“Mile 12 Market is the place I buy my plantains. When plantain is scarce I normally would switch to corn business; depending on the season. Every month I am able to save up to N30, 000; that also depends on how people patronise me, some months N20, 000 or so. This is what I do to support my children in school. My children may not be rich but they are doing very well. At least, we were able to sponsor them to higher education,” she said.

Esther Bassey, 42, mother of three from Kogi State, is another resilient entrepreneur whose fighting spirit she said was challenged in September 2011 when her husband Basil, died in Lekki, Lagos.

“My husband was pleased to have me and I was equally contented having such a wonderful man as my husband. I fried bean cake (‘akara’). Then, I progressed to sell cooked rice and that was what I was selling when he died. Few months after his death, I was abandoned by many including the faith community that I thought would be there when the going gets tough. My children have to go to school because they are still very young. God has been encouraging me especially when I feel helpless and without strength. I just got a shop now in Ajah,” she said.
Asked how she was able to raise the money for her new shop, she said it was mainly possible through her daily financial contribution (Ajo).

“At the end of every month I save about N10, 000. I should have gotten the shop since; you know sometimes something happens in the family that you did not initially plan for and you start spending money meant for major things. I thank God for everything; my children are not out of school because of the death of their father,” she said.
Ene Sylvester, 45, a mother of three from Benue State, said she started her entrepreneurial enterprise with the sale of gala and sachet water (known in local parlance as “pure water”) in traffic, and that many times when KAI officials confiscated her goods she refused to give up because she did not want to remain idle.

“How can you seize goods worth N4, 000 and you are asking me to pay N10, 000 to get it back? My goods were carried three times by KAI officials for trading on the street but I kept raising money to start all over again. I graduated from selling gala and pure water to selling fruits. I go to Mile 12 to buy these fruits. My effort is finally paying off.

“When major financial need arises in my family, I take it upon myself the responsibility of meeting such need without informing my husband. Most of the time I pay electricity bill on behalf of my husband and he is usually very delighted when he finds out. I have also paid school fees, though, my husband usually return the money to me. I cannot really say exactly the amount I am making per month because sales are not always the same. I think I make up to N20, 000. The bible says woman was made to help the man. I think I have been helpful to my husband,” she said.

Mile 12 market, the ‘hope of the hopeless’
A major feature in the stories of these women in the informal business environment in Lagos who spoke to BD SUNDAY, both the ones whose interviews could not appear here for want of space, is the role Mile 12 market played in their lives over the years in helping them find their bearings.

At one point or the other, the market was the hope for many of them when they had nowhere else to turn. It was a case of either “we find help in Mile 12 market or die begging”. Some of them showered praises on the leadership of the market on how they were assisted and encouraged to face life challenges as it were before their current financial status. Testimonies of how they went to the market with either little or nothing at all abound. Some started out by carrying loads and making earnings no matter how little it was.

Dupe Olabisi, 54, a widow and mother of six who now sells fresh vegetable at the market was one of such women. She said when she came to the market eight years ago, she started by joining able-bodied young men in the market to offload trucks of goods brought to the market from northern part of the country.

“I came to Lagos when my husband died in Ondo State because things became difficult; coupled with the fact that a particular evil man wanted me to be his concubine. When I started getting some money from carrying load, I rented a little apartment (boys quarters), went back to Ondo and brought my children here,” she said in Yoruba Language.
“The leadership of the market also supported me as well. My children have gone back to Ondo State. They are in school now. Two of them are graduates. The determination to see my children succeed and reach where their father could not reach is my motivation,” she said.

Aggregating income of Lagos resilient entrepreneurs
Though, these petty traders are in the informal sector of the economy, it is difficult to ascertain how much the sector contributes.

“They pay legal and sometime illegal levies to local government in the state. When their goods are seized by government officials, exorbitant fines are taken from them to have their goods back. They pay for utility services such as: transporting their goods from point of purchases to point of sales. In a chain of money transaction, the commercial bus operators pay to the various unions in the state who in turn pays certain amount to the state government”, said Toyin Yisua, a Lagos-based economist.

According to her, the random sample reveals the economic potential of the sector if given adequate economic planning, and that it is no news that this set of women abound in every nook and cranny of the state.

The minimum monthly earnings of those interviewed in this investigation were tentatively put at N10, 000 per month for the purpose of this study. If 3000, 000 of these women earn N10, 000 per month; totaling N300, 000000 with an estimation of a total earning in a year put at N36, 000000.

Government losing revenue in the sector
Further investigation revealed that the financial strength of the sector could indeed be of immense value to Nigerian state governments, and particularly Lagos State if mutually beneficial policies are put in place and the petty traders taxed appropriately; thereby tackling economy leakages associated with the informal sector of the economy.
Ajibola Falomo, a professional accountant, suggests in an interview with BD SUNDAY that the Lagos State government should as a matter of strategic economic planning erect kiosks for the petty traders, in the process, register them and taxes imposed accordingly rather than to wipe them out of the streets of Lagos for the sake of building a mega city.

“One can only hope that the on-going Residents Registration Exercise is aimed at addressing some of these problems. The sector should be reformed in the interest of proper taxation. This tax process would also help in identifying those who are exceptional among the petty traders and be rewarded or honoured in terms of award. They are really great contributors to both the home and the economy,” he said.

 

NATHANIEL AKHIGBE