Low patronage killing kolanut biz in Kaduna
The age-long business of buying and selling kolanut is fast fading in in Kaduna and environs an investigation by Arewa Trust has shown.
Our correspondents who went to many parts of the city report that many traders who in recent years back had made kolanuts as their main source of livelihood have now abandoned the trade.
Also the truck loads of kolanut that used to be ferried all the way from the South western parts of the country and sometimes from as far away as Ghana have disappeared from markets in Kaduna.
Many of the traders who spoke to our correspondents attributed the decline to low patronage.
They said many young people now do not eat kolanut as they found it out of tune with the modern era.
Another reason they said was the high cost of the commodity.
Mu’azu Mai Goro, a kolanut dealer at Chechen Market in Kaduna who said he had been in the business since he was 14, recalled that years back, his older siblings used to buy a bag of kola nut at between N60 to N70 but today a bag goes for about N270,000. major
“I cannot remember the year but it was during the regime of Abba Kyari then he was the military governor of Kaduna and kolanut was cheap then and business was booming,” he says.
Muazu said during the Shehu Shagari administration, business was so good that he was buying a truck of kolanut monthly.
He said but currently, he hardly sells 50 baskets of kola in a month due to low patronage.
“I think it was because people have now stopped eating kolanut unlike in those days when virtually everybody was using it,’’ he said.
He recalled that in the recent past, kolanuts were shared during weddings and naming ceremonies at homes.
“But today all these have changed as many prefer distributing dates during such ceremonies in the mosques. People no longer celebrate naming ceremonies in homes.
He said people still patronise them but not to the level as it was in the past.
“Some only come to buy a piece, some three pieces others 10 pieces unlike in those days that we used to sell bags at a go. The truth is that