Inflation, cost of production slash SMEs’ profits – Fish farmer

A fish farmer and processor, Mrs Maimuna Dangana-Diza, has lamented that the cost of production and inflation are eating up the profit margin of small and  medium business entrepreneurs.

Speaking at the weekend in Abuja during the  Women Enterprise Alliance (WenA) SME workshop tagged ‘SME Stories,’ she said when she started fish farming, one kilogram of fish was N650  and that 100kg of fish which sold for N65,000, yielded a hundred per cent profit of N65,000 after harvest and processing. 

She said currently, the price of fish had gone up to about N1,500, and when she bought fish worth N150,000, she made only N30,000 profit due to inflation and  cost of production.

Diza, who is the Chief Executive Officer of Muna World Empire Limited, also decried the challenge of accessing markets, adding that most times, in the bid to access markets, the middlemen would want to take the goods to the markets themselves thereby taking most of the profit and leaving the producer with little.

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On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of AND Bakery, Mr Samuel Ojeka, said government policies have not been favourable for small business entrepreneurs, stressing that every time he went to the market, there was always increase in the prices of products used for baking.

Speaking to journalists, the founder, Women Enterprise Alliance (WenA), Hajiya Aisha Babangida, said the essence for the workshop was to hear the stories of the entrepreneurs and find a way to provide solutions for them.

Babangida said the organisation will mentor and coach most of the entrepreneurs on what it would take to give their businesses a boost and access to funds where necessary.