Hope Imoh Monday. from Ika Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, is 22 years old. Her parents, who are both palm oil traders, live in the village with four of her siblings.
Hope, a relentless university admission seeker, finished her secondary school education in 2016. Between 2017 and 2018, she became a fashion design apprentice in Port Harcourt, after which her uncle bought her a sewing machine to trade with.
The story of Hope, who sells curtain materials near the campus of the University of Uyo, for survival and to become useful to herself, her parents, and society, mirrors the existential struggles an average Niger Delta girl from villages in Akwa Ibom goes through.
Hear her story: “In 2019, I left the village to Uyo to take my first JAMB. I scored 222, but UNIUYO did not give me admission into English Education.
“I was learning interior decoration then. So, after that, I had to learn how to sew wears between 2019 and 2021.
“I took JAMB again in 2021 but I didn’t meet the cut-off mark. I scored 180. So, I didn’t get admission.
“At that point, I was fed up. I started a shop at Abak Local Government Area.
“After some time, I heard about the Joint Universities Preliminary Examinations Board (JUPEB). When I took the exam, and in the period of waiting for my admission, I started schooling at Abak Campus, University of Uyo.
“I later checked my JAMB status and realised that I wasn’t admitted. I stopped. I scored 10 points instead of 16 points. I didn’t get the admission.
“In 2022, I started selling sewing clothes in a tailoring shop and the owner of the shop was paying N18,000 monthly.
“But after working for two months, she started deducting money from my salary with excuses for coming late.
“There are months she deducted up to N8,000 from my salary and paid only N10,000. I sew from morning till evening every day, and at the end of the month, she would deduct money from the actual salary we agreed on.
“After spending about three months there, I quit and stayed at home working with my sewing machine.
“Last year, in May, I started this curtain and bedsheets business because I was getting enough money with the cloth-sewing business.
“I started with the money I was saving from the money my parents used to give to me when I was in Abak Campus.
“When I was in Abak, I used to advertise the business to my fellow students on campus and that also fetched me some money.
“I was able to save N150,000 and that was the money I used to start the business in Uyo.
“I came to Uyo, looked for a spot, paid N45,000 for it, and I started selling the curtains and bedsheets there.
“When the idea came to my mind, I didn’t want to bother my parents because they tried for me when I was in Abak.
“I started with eight bedsheets, 15 yards each. I live in a single-room apartment at Ikpa with my last sibling.
“While in this business, I also wanted to go back to school. So, I wrote JAMB this year and scored 206. I pray that I will get it this time.
“I believe that sleeping around with men is a choice. I know things are hard, but I know that it is not the part for me.
“I believe in myself, that is why even though I have the liberty to do whatever I like, I will live right and actualise my dreams.
“I want to develop and add value to myself and when the time is right, good people will locate me.
“Sleeping around makes no sense to me because I believe in the money that I hustle for myself. If someone gives you N5,000, there is every tendency that you will use it anyhow. But if you hustle for N2000, you will use it wisely.
“With all the challenges of dust and theft that I am passing through here, if I can make small money, I will spend it wisely because I suffered for it.
“I am facing a lot of challenges. Last year was the best and worst year for me. I have experienced losses in the past few months I have been here.
“There was one time I brought out my goods, kept them in my kiosk and went to get my sewing machine ─ but, before I came back, someone had carted away my bag of goods worth N120,000. That was how I went back to square one.
“It was the daily contribution I was into, which was N80,000, that I collected to put in the business again. I had to start afresh because I didn’t want to give up easily.
“I pay N3000 monthly for this spot. But yearly, I pay up to N22,000 to the community boys aside from my monthly rent. I make approximately N4,000 daily when business is good.
“Another challenge I am facing is the increase in fuel and the regular fuel scarcity in the state.
“When I started last year, when fuel was still N400, paid N1000 to Aba, Abia State, to buy goods. On my way back, I used to pay N1500 together with my goods. That is a total of N2500 to and fro.
“But now, I can’t even go to Aba because of the increase in transportation. So, I do waybill. If I do a waybill, even if there are only two pieces of fabric, I end up paying N3000. The last time I checked, just to go to Aba is now N2,500 which is two times the normal price.
“Also, the prices of materials have increased. For example, the curtain material that is about N2800 now, I used to buy it for N1,350 last year when I started.
“The bedsheets that I used to buy for N400 are now N800 a piece. Because of this, people don’t buy the way they used to buy before. So, sales are reducing because of the increments.
“As a business person, I think the reason the prices of foodstuffs are increasing is the increase in fuel price. Now, some people will ask “Why is the price of garri increasing when we are the ones producing it?” As somebody who grew up in the village, I must tell you that the cost of producing garri is high.
“In my village, with N500, you could have people clear your farm and help you plant your cassava. But, now, to have someone do the same, you will end up paying one person N2000.
“Now, as someone whose major source of income is garri, imagine how much you will pay 20 persons to clear that farm and do the planting? If you insist that they must collect N500, what is the person going to use it for when two cups of garri is now N500?
“You will still have to pay people to harvest that cassava ─ and, when it is time for processing, you will still pay another money. Before, you could call somebody to fry garri for you and give him just three cups of garri as payment. But, now, you will pay the person higher for you to get that job done.
“Furthermore, if I buy goods at a wholesale price of N3000 and sell for N3500, and while I still have some stock the price increases to N4000, I will add the price to the one I have in the shop so that I can meet up with the current price when I want to buy it again. So I don’t think that the increase in foodstuffs is the fault of the traders.
“When the value of the naira appreciated against the dollar, people were asking why the prices of things were still the same. The thing is if I buy something for N6000 when the dollar is high, you won’t expect me to reduce money from it because the dollar is now low. If I do that, how do I get my capital and profit? And the funniest thing is that, before they will finish the stock they bought when the dollar was high, it will increase again.
“All the challenges we are experiencing in this country are from the government. So, I am calling on them to do something to relieve us of this pain and suffering.
“The situation in this country is encouraging some people to steal. I was inside the shop one day when the goods I put inside the wheelbarrow were stolen. Even mature people steal now. Sometimes, I don’t blame them because the country is hard. That was how a well-dressed lady stole N16,000 while pretending to buy a pillowcase.
“That is why girls are sleeping around because making money is difficult.”
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