ENUGU – Prices of livestock have increased in Enugu, five days ahead of the Eid-el-Fitri celebration.
A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent who monitored some livestock markets in the coal city on Wednesday reports that only a few animals were on display.
A ram dealer at the new artisan market, Mr Diko Abdulahi, said the animal was scarce because most of the dealers stayed at home to observe their Ramadan.
“I have only eight rams in the market but before now l used to have between 120 and 150 rams for sale. “We have three species of ram, dankasa, wuda and feriferi. Dankasa is the most expensive followed by wuda and then feriferi is the cheapest,’’ he said.
According to him, a ram is sold for between N15,000 and N55, 000 depending on the size and specie while it cost between N10,000 and N45,000 before now.
A cow seller at the Gariki market, Mr Baraka Ibrahim, said that apart from the Moslem fasting period, another major reason for the increase in the price of livestock was transportation.
“Most transporters no longer agree to go to the northern part of the country because of insecurity while the few transporters that agree to travel to the north will charge us very high price,’’ he said.
Ibrahim said that a cow now sold for between N65,000 and N155,000 as against between N55,000 and N135,000 last month.
Another livestock dealer at the old Artisan market, Mr Chijioke Obayi, said the Ramadan had affected their business.
“People no longer patronise us because of the high cost of the animals. As you can see, the market is empty, nothing is happening. [eap_ad_1] “We all are here sleeping and waiting for customers but none has come to my shop since morning,” he said.
A buyer, Mr Leonard Eneje, lamented that he could not buy the size of ram he wanted because of the scarcity of rams.
“The market is really empty, even the sizes I see are very costly compared to what it used to be before now,” he said.
Another buyer, Mr Benjamin Ngwu, said that he went to the three livestock markets to compare their prices but found out that they were the same.
“The rams are very costly but I bought one small ram at the cost of N25,000,” he said. (NAN)
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