Boko Haram Insurgency Dwindles Economic Fortunes Of Northern Nigeria

Posted by African Examiner Featured, Latest Headlines Thursday, August 14th, 2014

From Agabus Pwanagba, Jos

An appeal has gone to the Federal Government to step up action to curtail the incursion of the Boko Haram insurgency so as to give the country’s economy a breath of fresh air.

The plea was made in Jos, the Plateau state capital by the Administrative Manager of NASCO Group, Shehu Nyatau.

He expressed confidence that the security challenges may be a temporary thing, saying the company would soon bounce back when the insecurity was over in the north.

Meanwhile, the company has blamed the dwindling economy fortunes in the Northern part of the country to the prolonged security challenges in some parts of the region.

Nyatau told journalists that the dreams of business operators and company owners in Nigeria and especially in the north has been lost due to insecurity in the country.

According to him, “NASCO Group of Companies is one of the largest employer of labour in the north, but the prevailing insecurity in the north has affected our market in the country negatively.

“The major market of NASCO in northern Nigeria, we do record up to 60– 70 per cent sales in the north, but following the crisis in the zone, our sales has dropped as low as 10 -15 per cent

“Most of our distributors in the north do take our products to neighboring countries. But all this has stopped because our drivers cannot even take goods to some states in the north because their safety is not guaranteed.

“NASCO is still striving to penetrate markets in the Southern parts of the country because they have concentration of manufacturing company there. So, unless government act fast in addressing the level of insecurity in the north, so many companies like NASCO will soon go out of business.

“If you go to our warehouse, you will see that we have pile up of unsold stocks and these stocks has time frame to be sold or else, they will expire. We have laid off most of our workers because we can’t pay them” he lamented.