Business cautious as military reclaims North-East towns

Big businesses and small and medium enterprises are waiting with bated breath, as Nigerian and sub-regional forces put insurgent group, Boko Haram, on the back foot and reclaim town after town in the country’s north-east from them.

The business groups are keen to return to work but are waiting for firmer victories and a more secure environment,BusinessDay learnt.

 

The gong for them to re-open, they say, will be the return of the banks which closed shop over a year ago, when the insurgency became overwhelming.

“It is still proving difficult for entrepreneurs to return, because of the losses they have suffered,” Abdurahaman Modibbo Girei, president, Adamawa Chamber of Commerce and Industry told BusinessDay.

“Businesses are slightly picking up in Mubi (the second biggest town in Adamawa), but resuscitation of businesses here in the North-East will still take some time.  Banks have not re-opened and entrepreneurs cannot have access to finance to carry out their businesses,” Girei said.

He explained that businesses could only be restored en-masse,when they had been convinced that they could relax and operate without fear of attacks or intimidation.

Military forces from Benin Republic, Cameroon, Chad and Niger, assisting Nigeria to defeat Boko Haram, are recording tremendous successes, destroying many insurgents’ camps, re-capturing many towns and restoring security in areas hitherto in the grip of Boko Haram.

Among the towns recently recaptured by Nigerian and sub-regional forces, are Baga, Bama, Gujba, Buni Yadi, Bara, Monguno and Buni Gari.

But many small business operators who relocated from Boko Haram’s three most vulnerable states of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, have been reluctant to return, as banks that are supposed to provide liquid capital for their businesses are yet to re-open.

Similarly, telecoms operators whose masts were destroyed by the insurgents, are yet to repair them and restore communication in recaptured towns, thereby precluding the possibility of effective business communication for returning entrepreneurs. 

BusinessDay findings show that manufacturers, such as, Flour Mills, which suspended their activities in Borno, are yet to resume operations in the state.

Also, other enterprises that moved their representatives from the volatile states to Abuja, are yet to return them to these recaptured areas.

Shettima Bukar Jallaba, director-general, Yobe Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told BusinessDay that business operators in the export segment, who used to export fruits, vegetables and other agricultural products to Niger Republic and Cameroun were out of business, because the borders of these neighbouring countries had remained closed.

Jallaba also said farmers who were sacked and their crops vandalised by insurgents would be willing to return if peace was restored in all the 17 local governments of the state.

He said communication and information technology had been  grossly undermined, as telecoms companies, such as MTN, Glo, Airtel and Etisalat had not been functional in some local governments in the state.

Military success in the North-East is expected to spur the animal skin and leather businesses and boost Nigeria’s non-oil exports, as shoe makers from Italy, Spain and the United States buy them on the basis of their high quality.

“Animal skins and leather from the North of Nigeria are more expensive than those of China, because of their high quality,”Nnabugwu Osondu, secretary, Abia State Shoe, Bag, Belt and Trunk Box Association, said in an interview with BusinessDay.

ODINAKA ANUDU