London’s world famous Sunday
market, better known as Liverpool Street Market, in East London is facing hard
times as some of its businesses are folding up while many others are struggling
to stay afloat due to the low patronage of Nigerians, a Daily Trust findings
have shown.
The 400-year-old market, which
sells mainly clothes for women, men and children; designer goods, as well as
bric-a-brac and household goods, is patronised mainly by Nigerians and other
customers from around the world.
A recent survey by Daily Trust
showed that the change of government in Nigeria, coupled with cash and financial
policies that placed restrictions on the amount of money one can travel with or
withdraw abroad have led to a drastic reduction of Nigerian customers at the
market.
In one of the big textile
shops in the market, an employee who craved anonymity told Daily Trust that
their sales had slumped by more than 40 percent since the inception of the
President Muhammadu Buhari administration, adding that the few Nigerian
customers who come in now buy only a fraction of items they used to buy in the
past.
In another top textile shop
with a reputation of serving tea to big time customers while they shop, a
manager who wouldn’t like his name published said their business has been going
through “tough times” in the last few months due to a “significant” drop in the
number of Nigerian customers.
“When the going was good, a
lot of Nigerian customers bought assorted items in bulk and opted for door- to-
door courier or cargo delivery in Nigeria,” but lamented that they hardly have
such customers now.
Hajiya Rabi, a store
operative, while confirming the decline in sales owing to a drastic drop in the
number of Nigerian customers, said the future of businesses, especially
textiles shops in the market looked very bleak without robust patronage by
Nigerians and other customers.
Speaking in the same vein, a
shop owner, Chief (Mrs.) Franca Aina, said sales had “really, really gone
down,” and attributed the trend partly to restrictions on credit card spending
and the limited amount of cash Nigerians are allowed to carry or withdraw
abroad.
Aina, who is Nigerian, said
the situation was so bad that some shops and businesses were closing down,
stressing that: “I think it’s because of the new government’s war on
corruption.”
“In the past, Nigerians used
to come here and spend (money) anyhow. But now only a few come and they spend
very little. In many shops, 90 percent of sales are by Nigerian customers. So
you can see why the businesses are folding up,” she narrated.
The shop owner appealed to the
Nigerian government to look into the cash and financial restrictions placed on
its citizens travelling abroad, stressing that people should be allowed to
carry as much money as they wish as long as they could prove ownership of the
money.
“We go to Switzerland and
other countries to buy goods and carry as much money as we need and the UK does
not stop us as long as we can prove it is our money,” she said, pointing out
that placing a blanket restriction victimises innocent people who earn their
money legitimately.
Daily Trust reports that in
most of the shops visited, operatives were seen idling away as very few
customers were in the shops, unlike in the past when such shops were a beehive
of activities as the operatives struggled to cope with customers’ demand.
A couple seen seated in one of
the shops told Daily Trust that they were from Nigeria and they came to the
market to buy some fabrics and other items for personal use and gifts (tsaraba)
for family and friends at home.
It is recalled that businesses
at the market recorded very poor sales for a few days in January 2012 during
the fuel subsidy removal protests in Nigeria when flights into the UK were
suspended, and it took weeks before the situation became normal
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