In Kano, hides and skins are money spinner

Like Mairake, hundreds of other labourers earn a living working for dealers of Kwata and majority of them come from villages in the outskirts of Kano. Spread Kwata requires periodic turning in order to be properly dried, some take few days to dry, while others last for weeks, depending on the dampness of the hides. […]

Like Mairake, hundreds of other labourers earn a living working for dealers of Kwata and majority of them come from villages in the outskirts of Kano. Spread Kwata requires periodic turning in order to be properly dried, some take few days to dry, while others last for weeks, depending on the dampness of the hides.

About one hundred labourers are into the job already, while more able-bodied young men want to go into it. Ubana Maifata Tsamiyar Kifi said he has so far got more than 60 boys recruited into the business. He said, “Parents often come and beg me to recruit their children for the Kwata job and some boys meet me personally and say they want to come in on the job.”

LABOURERS DECRY LACK OF CAPITAL: But Ahmad decried the situation where he and some of his colleagues who have spent more than sixty years in the job, keep being mere labourers to people from outside Kano, and blamed lack of funds for it. “Most of these dealers met me in the business, but you can see because they have access to bank loans, that is why they employ us as labourers. We don’t have access to the hundreds of thousands or millions of naira that is needed for the business.”

OUTSIDERS RUN THE BUSINESS: Majority of the people that own the business are from other parts of the country, and they are mostly women. Mairake said they are Mostly Igbira, Igbo and Yoruba. The labourers refer to them as ‘dealers’, while in real sense they are wholesalers. They get the supply of Kwata from hides and skin factories that are spread around Kano at rates between N12 and N17 per kilogram depending on the type and quality of the pieces.

Hajiya Nafisa Nasiru has been in the wholesale business of Kwata for two decades. Whenever she gets supply from any factory, she goes along with her labourers to “sort out the cut-outs, weigh them and transport them to the rock.” She comes to monitor work progress at the rock in the evening hours and when she is satisfied, she pays the labourers.

In a chat with Pyramid Trust, the wholesaler disclosed that the business has been raking in profit for her, “especially during Sallah festivities.” “That is the time when people slaughter a lot of rams, and because of that, hides are brought to the factories in tons and the cut-outs are plenty that time. Sincerely speaking, that is the boom period for the market,” she said.        

At such periods, she said, the price of the commodity usually slumps to an average of N1200 per bag, adding however that due to accompanying high demand and quick sales, they generate big turnovers.

TOUGH CHALLENGES COME WITH THE BOOM: However, she opined that it is about the same period that the business brings forth its challenges. Because they don’t have stores, the commodity is always left out in the open and that comes with a cost for them during rainy seasons. She said,  “When we have large supply of cut-outs during Sallah, we face the enormous task of coming to the rock every day to supervise how it is dried. And it is about that time that the rainy seasons sets in. And normally, we have to gather the pieces as soon as rain starts falling and spread them again when it stops. Don’t forget that even while it rains, the last piece of the cut-out has to be retrieved and covered otherwise they will get spoilt.”

She equally explained that the labourers are paid for every session of gathering and spreading, even if the rain will fall for hundred times a day. “In a nutshell, the business brings a lot of money, and is more tasking during Sallah periods,” she revealed.

During non-boom periods, a bag of high quality Kwata is sold to retailers at the sum of N35, 000 for onward distribution to consumers in different parts of the country. It was also gathered that some retailers don’t subscribe to undergoing the rigours of coming to Kano personally to buy the commodity; they instead buy it through their agents that are stationed in Kano.

SEEM TO BE COMPETING WITH KPOMO AS AN EDIBLE: Pyramid Trust has gathered that the growth in the business was stimulated by high consumption of Kwata among people in different sections of the country. Kwata is cheaper than Kpomo, cattle hide, and both are sourced differently. While Kpomo could be made from the whole of a cow’s hide, Kwata is removed from the neck, legs and tail region of goats or sheep skin during trimmings, in preparation for making leather.

Hajiya Nasiru however, denied it was ever eaten, saying “the people that buy from us tell us they sell it to companies that produce poultry and animal feeds. It is not like Kpomo.”

Nonetheless, it was also gathered that the consumption of Kwata is growing among members of Kano communities. Tsamiyar Kifi disclosed that some of their local customers are from Malikawa in Danbatta Local Government and from Bichi Local Government.

“Twenty years ago, companies scout for the labourers that would dispose of the pieces for them. However, when they discovered that people have turned to eating it the way they do Kpomo, the companies started tagging price on it,” another wholesaler revealed.

“As things are presently, no dealer could walk into any of the factories and get the cut-outs instantly, without waiting for up to a day or two no matter how rich he is,” he said.