Unlike other coastal states in Nigeria, seafood traders in Bayelsa State have raised alarm over the rising cost of doing business, largely driven by insecurity at sea and high levies at the offloading points particularly at Swali market waterside.
Mrs. Selegha Jenny Aga, a seafood processor and crayfish trader, is one of many affected. In a heartfelt interview, she described the harsh realities traders face while trying to earn a living.
According to her, sea piracy has been a major challenge in over five years of doing her seafood business. “We all know that in Bayelsa State, sea piracy especially in the Twon Brass area, has been a serious issue, and for years now, it has been left unattended to,” she said.
She said they pay a huge amount of money to sea pirates on monthly basis for them to get access into the sea with their boat, set their nets and fish without being attacked.
“By the time you miss a particular month for payment, they usually enter the sea and there will be massive killings. Most of the time, the state itself don’t even hear of the killings that happen in the sea. When this things happen, aside from deaths that occur, there are massive loses like engines.
“Presently, an engine costs more than N3million and some people lose one, two, three engines; some people have up to three boats. There was a day one of our boats went missing, for two nights I couldn’t sleep. I almost had high blood pressure because I imagined the cost of making a boat which is more than N1million, the fishing net is also more than N500,000 before you talk of the engine,” she said.
She explained that the insecurity is affecting the cost of seafood especially in Bayelsa compare to what is sold in Akwa Ibom and Rivers State. “So when a fisherman goes fishing in the mist of this insecurity, if he comes back sometimes after experiencing these loses, they add whatever loses they had on what they came back with, making it expensive.
“Presently, a bag of crayfish is over N180,000, as at one month ago, it was N200,000. If you tell people outside that a custard was sold for N20,000, they run because if you compare our prizes to that of Oron, Bonny and other places, Bayelsa prize is higher and which affect businesses; it affects us,” she lamented.
Adding to the burden is the cost of offloading seafood at the Swali waterside market in Yenagoa. “Initially, a bag of crayfish we offload it for N50 per bag but presently to offload goes for N200 per bag.
“When it becomes too much in Bayelsa, we go outside to carry crayfish into the state. The people that collect taxes at the toll gate, for a full bus I pay nothing more than N2000: that is for over a hundred bags of crayfish. But if it is at the Swali waterside, it is over N20,000. We have complained severally but nothing has changed.”
In response, the Bayelsa Investment Promotion Agency (BIPA), acknowledged the issue. The director general and Focal Person SABER Bayelsa, Patience Ranami Abah, said a similar complaint had just been made by Garri traders.
“We’ve scheduled a meeting next week to summon the Swali market contractor responsible. We don’t even have his name yet,” she admitted. “I’ve asked the traders to identify him. We’re also aware of landowners at the waterfront exploiting traders. We only got this report on Wednesday, and we are acting on it.”
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