Cameroon beans flood Maiduguri market

Despite ongoing insurgency that led to the closure of all routes leading to neighbouring Cameroon, Chad and Niger republics from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, the big brown Cameroon beans, popularly called ‘Banjala’ or ‘Olo 2’, has flooded the main beans market at Muna Garage.
Several trucks load of Banjala, which is larger than the normal brown beans produced in Nigeria, arrived at the market, weekend, thereby forcing the prices of small bags of beans to  go down, from N13, 000 to N9, 000 per bag.
One of the beans importers, Alhaji Abubakar Mohammed, said though Banjala is being produced in Cameroon, it is largely consumed in the southern part of Nigeria, with Maiduguri being the hub of Bangala business.
However, he warned: “Beans may likely be scarce next year because the Boko Haram insurgency did not allow farmers in the state cultivate it as they were supposed to do and the farmers in Cameroon did not produce much because they are afraid we may not be able to go and buy from them. As we went to buy, we had to wait for our agents to enter some villages to go and source for the beans for us.
“The demand for Banjala is higher than the supply because we do not have enough capital to buy enough quantity for our market. We just hope that Governor Shettima will consider us for the loan he has been distributing to traders so that we can boost our trade. We also buy and sell the beans produced locally by our farmers.”
A local farmer in Maiduguri, Ali Mommodu, said he has abandoned his farm along Gamboru Road for almost four years now because insurgents have taken over the area, adding that he now farms on a small piece of land along Gubio Road.
“If government can assist us with the type of seeds the Cameroonians are using, we can also grow it, he said.”
A food vendor, Mama Nkechi, said they like Banjala more than the local beans because it swells when cooked and it is tastier, adding: “Nobody that knows beans will leave Banjala and go for the local one.”
When this reporter visited the beans market at Muna Garage in Maiduguri, several beans dealers from Lagos, Onitsha, Port Harcourt, Abuja and other parts of the country were seen buying Banjala in large quantity.