BusinessDay 30 Mar 2018

Friday 30 March 2018
NEWS
Retailers slash prices by 60% over Easter break
DAVID IBEMERE
Festive but frugal is
the order of the day
for consumers, especially
Christians, who
are looking to keep a
firm grip on their pockets despite
feeling cheerier than last
year’s Easter celebration.
Despite most retailers in
the country lowering their
prices in a bid to lure shoppers
with aggressive sales
tactics, most retailers are suffering
tepid festive sales.
Online retail stores are not
left out as they are also offering
various incentives on their
platforms with coupons on
Jumai worth over N2,000 daily
during this Easter period.
A visit to various malls
in Lagos State shows most
retailers have significantly
slashed their prices, especially
for groceries, yet
most shops are seen with
no customers.
At Surulere and Apapa,
while most consumers
thronged in with the hope of
cashing in on all sectors, most
consumers were seen leaving
the malls with either bread or
a few grocery products.
Speaking with Business-
Day, a clothing and sales
stores attendant who gave
her name as Adeola, said her
company had to reduce the
… yet shoppers still stay away
The EPWL All Natural
Therapy employs
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safe, effective and
detailed regimens that encourage
the body to heal
itself by using moving
magnet energy waves that
change the way body responds
to pain and others.
Speaking at a recent
press conference, Olufunprices
for most of the items in
the store to sell them off, yet
the sales remained the same.
“There is a particular dress
sold for N15,000, and it was
reduced to N9,000, but most
customers still left the stores
without buying it.”
“Nigerians are just not
willing to spend, sincerely I
am yet to make a sale. I made
effort to announce my drop
in prices, yet they only come
in, see and leave,” Nonso
Orji, footwear storeowner in
Ogueleba, said.
Ini Archibong, Shoprite
spokesman, had last week said
the company was planning to
capitalise on various “mega
sales promo” across all segment
this Easter to drive sales.
However, observation carried
out at two of Shoprite stores
in Apapa and Surulere shows
most shopping is only done in
the grocery department.
“Over the years, Easter
sales have grown in popularity
over the past five years,
and the Christian holiday is
now seen as yet another excuse
to offer heavy price cuts.
These price cuts appear to be
a remedy to a number of store
closures, suffering from low
sales,” Madu Hassan, a retail
analyst, said.
A visit a Pep Store in Yaba
shows a good number of customers
sizing up children’s
wares, the attendant who wore
a gloom look said she was not
ready to disclose her sales record,
while reluctantly screaming,
“We are making efforts.”
Spar is another retailer
outlet offering Easter promo
till April 2, and is another store
experiencing low sales. One of
the attendant told Business-
Day on condition of anonymity
Thursday that sales had yet
to improved.
“Our sales have not improved
greatly as we had anticipated
but we hope from
today we get more customers
paying rather than sampling.
“I am still very carful on
what I spend my money on,
I spend not less than 30 minutes
online browsing through
different deals to be sure before
I buy am yet to make a
decision,” Bumni Olajide said
as she works out of another
store in Yaba the third without
buying an item.
A report by Nielsena research
firm in its Africa Prospects
Indicator (APi), shows
that Nigerians are still concerned
about their personal
finances due to limited spare
cash, leading to a conservative
outlook on spending for
first two quarters of 2018.
Senate rejects $350m Kaduna World Bank loan request
OWEDE AGBAJILEKE, Abuja
Senate on Thursday
rejected approval of
$350 million Kaduna
State Development
Policy Operation Credit Facility
from the World Bank.
This followed the recommendation
by the Senate
Committee on Local and
Foreign Debts.
Presenting his report,
chairman of the committee,
Shehu Sani, who also
hails from Kaduna State,
explained that the state was
already indebted to the tune
of $232 million.
He noted that the approval
of the loan would
raise the debt profile of the
state to $582 million.
This, he said, would leave
huge debt burden for the
C002D5556
next generation, adding that
the state is the second most
indebted state in Nigeria after
Lagos.
“The new debt stock will
likely, further erode the
economic viability of the
State. The Committee recommends
that the Senate
do reject the request of $350
million for Kaduna State as
contained in the 2015 2018
External Borrowing (Rolling)
Plan of Mr. President,
Commander-in-Chief of the
Armed Forces.
“That with the high total
debt stock of Kaduna State
at the moment, the new borrowing
sought, will make the
debt service to revenue ratio
high, thereby worsening the
State Government’s ability
to meet its other basic obligations
to the people and
milayo Brown, a chief medical
consultant, who notes
that the therapy delivers
naturally-derived energy to
weakens cells, says it makes
for fast, safe and efficient
form of treatment from broken
bones and scars tissue
repair.
The technology behind
EPWL Natural Therapy
has been used extensively
BUSINESS DAY
further erode the economic
viability of the State,” Sani
stated.
Beside Sani, the two other
senators from the state,
Danjuma La’ah and Suleiman
Hunkuyi also rejected
the foreign loan, saying the
state finances would suffer.
They emphasised that
the loan request failed to address
key issues that would
have aided its approval.
Specifically, Hunkuyi
said it was unfortunate that
the governor of the state, Nasir
el-Rufai, only asked his
commissioner for women
affairs and other special assistants
to approve the loan
at the State Executive Committee
meeting, adding that
it fell short of 18 key government
officials as required by
the World Bank.
EPWL All Natural employs technology to cure pain, others
31
for decades for many condition
and medical disciplines
fully approved by
United State FDA specifically
to fuse broken bones,
wound healing, pain and
tissue swelling, working
to reduce pain, inflammation,
the effect of stress on
the body, platelet adhesion,
fuse broken bones,
she states.