Transportation challenges faced by women entrepreneurs
By Victoria Onehi, Chris Agabi, Simon Echewofun Sunday, Abubakar Sadiq Isa, Taiwo Adeniyi &Latifat Opoola Habiba Muhammed, a local potter in Gurfata, used to trek for four hours to the market to sell her wares. She said that she ventured into the pottery business after she incurred huge loss in her hair styling business. […]
By Victoria Onehi, Chris Agabi, Simon Echewofun Sunday, Abubakar Sadiq Isa, Taiwo Adeniyi &Latifat Opoola
Habiba Muhammed, a local potter in Gurfata, used to trek for four hours to the market to sell her wares. She said that she ventured into the pottery business after she incurred huge loss in her hair styling business.
“I trek to the Lambata and Dobi markets every week,” she said. “Because of the bad road, no vehicle would want to come here and, if they do, the fare is expensive. So I stack some pots in a sack and carry it on my head to the market. I pray government help us someday.”
Madam Tabitha Choka, from Kuchi village in Kagarko LGA of Kaduna State, farms ginger, cassava and other staples. She often faces difficulty in taking her produces to her choice markets in Kwoi town, about 20 kilometres away from her village.
“It is often difficult for us women, especially during the rainy season,” she said, adding: “The drivers of pick-up vans used to charge cut-throat transportation fare of over N10,000 for a truckload of cassava.”
For Mrs Maria Ejembi, another farmer in Effa village of Okpokwu LGA in Benue state, the story is similar. To overcome her challenge of transporting her cassava, Maria would have to process it into garri and convey it in bags to the market during the four-day interval market day. That is when transportation fares are affordable due to availability of several vehicles competing for passengers.
“We use motorcycles to take inputs to our farm and also convey smaller bags of produce to the markets, she said.
“The situation is always more difficult during the rainy season when the roads become muddy. We engage people who use wheel barrows to convey produces from the farms to places where we can get cars.”
A farmer at Gwomani village in Kwali Area Council, Mrs Saratu Ayuba, has been farming beniseed for over eight years but she used to find it difficult to transport her crops to market after harvest due to bad road.
“During Kwaku village market, I have to get some women who help me to carry plantain to the market as we cannot cross the big river that link to Kwaku because there is no bridge,” she said.
According to her, the deplorable nature of some rural roads was responsible for the high cost of food crops in market, saying that some drivers used to charge exorbitant rate to convey farm products to the market.
She, therefore, appealed to the authorities to to grade the roads and construct culverts across some streams to enable farmers transport their farm produce to the market easily.
The Chairman of Kuje Area Council, Alhaji Abdullahi D. Galadima, however, said that his administration was aware of the challenges facing the rural dwellers, especially lack of roads.
He said: “It is obvious that our people, especially those in rural areas, are facing challenges posed by bad roads. During my campaign across all the villages, we saw what they have been going through and we will not relent in our efforts to address their challenges.”
Also speaking, the Chairman of Kwali Area Council, Mr Joseph Shazhin, said that the council will include some rural roads in its next year’s budget.
“Kwali Area Council is the food basket of the FCT and this administration has taken the issue of rural areas seriously, especially rural roads, which we have already captured in next year’s budget,” he said.
The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, speaking on the one year anniversary of his assumption of office, last week, said that the federal government will fix federal roads in food producing states in the country.
To this end, he said that the ministry will prioritise roads that bear the heaviest cargo to allow farmers, businessmen, industries, goods and travellers move easily and drive productive activities.
On the other hand, Engr. Mr Fidet Okhiria, the Managing Director of the Nigeria Railway Cooperation (NRC), said that the railway will be used in freighting huge agricultural produces across the country.
He said that, already, the NRC is moving huge farm produces on the Lagos to Kano narrow gauge line in addition to other products the trains carry.
He said that with the train lines crisscrossing, Nigerians will soon start moving their goods and farm produces seamlessly to major markets across the country.
People like Habiba Mohammed only pray that this happens soon to alleviate their transportation challenges.