In Abuja heat, iced lollies are hot cake

The heat scorches these days. But while residents of Abuja and its suburbs crave for the rains, Fan Ice vendors at Kuje, a community on the outskirts of Abuja, are making a killing from parched throats.
 A hot Sunday was Abubakar’s first outing as a Fan Ice vendor. Even inexperienced as he was, he was able to make sales of N3000, and from the figure, he earned what he considered a fairly handsome profit margin. Later, he realized he could do better than the N3000 because Sunday afternoon is when Christians spill out from churches, their throats dry with thirst. Thirsty Christians, he was to understand, are good consumers of the Fan Ice drink.
 Once a commercial motorcycle rider in Gwagwalada, Abubakar decided at a point to search for another means of livelihood. “It was simply time for me to take another path,” he told Daily Trust.
 A friend came to his rescue, telling him about the Fan Ice vendorship. The friend gave him the supplier’s phone number, whom he contacted, visited in Kuje and soon earned his trust. “That was how I was given a bicycle for the Fan Ice vendorship with an agreement I start paying back daily from my earnings.
 Every morning, Fan Ice vendors like Abubakar gather at the supplier’s office at Kuje and wait patiently to collect the day’s ration. Auwal Ibrahim, who has been in the business for over five years, understands it more than most. In his 20s and energetic, Auwal, who said he has grown to love the job, makes an average of N10,000 to N15,000 daily.
 In his bicycle cooler are a variety of Fan ice flavours which he sells by strategically positioning himself at one of Kuje’s most popular and busy junctions known as Tipper Garage. Auwal is conscious of the fact that the dry season, when it is scorching hot, is the period to rake in nice earnings for himself. He has little time to spare because the rains would soon be here and sales will definitely fall. From morning till late in the day in the dry season, Auwal works hard at his Fan Ice sales job, raking in every kobo he can. 
 A teenager, Abdullahi Rabi’u, dumped school at Primary Three years ago and now sells Fan Ice flavours. Four years are already gone and he intends to use the work he does as a springboard to returning to school. Rabi’u prides himself in the fact that from his considerable earnings, he sends money back home to his relatives in Zamfara State.   
 But not all of these agile males are young. Malam Hudu Mohammed was nostalgic about his beginning in the business with the Fan Ice Company in Kano, from where he relocated to Kuje to do the same job. In his 50s now, Muhammed explained that every cyclist is taken on the basis of trust. “First, you must have a guarantor and if you are found worthy, you get the work,” he said, adding that patience is the key to make sales. The business is all Mohammed does to feed his family, which is why he takes it serious.
 “Sometimes I earn at least N2000 or N3000 profit after giving the company its due,” he intimated. Of course, there are days “there is no market”, as Muhammed put it, where a vendor is unable to exhaust his stock. In such an instance, the company collects the unsold, which it refrigerates till the next day and distributes to vendors.
 They may look ordinary, members of the mass hoi polloi. But they work legitimately hard to earn their living. They also provide invaluable service to the thirsty society, pedestrians and motorists alike, wetting their dry throats. In Fan Ice vendors, there is, indeed, the living proof that there is dignity in labour.