Oluwakemi Adepetu
Code: NG454
I got to my respondent’s place yesterday as it was our meeting day. He saw me enter the premises but I didn’t see him. I asked around if anyone had seen him and they pointed him to me. I greeted him and asked how he was doing. Immediately, he said he wasn’t okay, that he had experienced poor sales, that some of his customers reduced the quantity of bread they buy, and some customers are not even willing to stock their shop with his bread. He said that he has reduced his production as a result of this. He showed me some pieces of bread that were rejected. Despite his mood, he still took his time to grant the interview. He later asked when we would fulfill our promises. I told him to relax and that we are on it. Lest I forget, this respondent doesn’t keep daily records of his transactions because he is also involved in the production process and sales of his products, and he feels it would be too much of a task documenting records. He has a sales pattern which makes it easy to track his daily transaction for the week.
Chinenye E
Code: NG116
I have a firm that is into welding and iron bending. The firm owner used to be in the village but moved to the city.
According to him, things were going well before COVID but following COVID, the prices of things have been going up more so in the past 2 months. He said that after pricing work and giving the quotation to the customer, by the time you go to the market you find that prices have changed from what they were when you did pricing. So you will now have to fill in the money for the materials from the money that should have come to you for your workmanship, making you earn less from the transaction.
This is also the respondent that lost his phone within the last month and has been trying to retrieve his line without much success. He is presently using a new line while he hopes to recover his old line soon amidst the delays from NCC and NIMC.
Chinenye E
Code: NG324, NG296, NG116
Following the new research questions that have been added, I have been getting reactions from respondents. Some firm owners said that the questions were too many and took too much time. One said it looks like we keep adding more questions and that he hopes I remember that he is a businessman.
Michael Enyam
Code: NG268
This firm is one of the most dedicated firms on my list. He is very meticulous in his record keeping because he studied financial accounting at a higher institution.
His firm is a private school. According to him, where he previously rented a building and was running the firm, the landlord gave them quick notice within a short time to leave the building because he wants to renovate it for another purpose. Things became tough so within a short time and they moved into the current available space.
We usually meet every Thursday. For the last two weeks, he was emotionally unstable because his mom was sick and he had sent his wife to go bring his mother to Lagos so she can receive adequate medical care.
Last week Thursday, we were supposed to meet for the usual business. I called in the morning to remind him in my usual way but he told me to change the appointment to the evening because he was with his mom in the Hospital. Evening came and I called, but he didn’t pick up. On Friday, I called again and he didn’t pick up. Yesterday I dropped a message for him on WhatsApp asking him about his mother’s health and he replied that she’s not responding to treatment and that she has been vomiting. Last night I got a WhatsApp message from him that he lost his mother. A very big burden for him.
Michael Enyam
Code: NG214
During census, when I visited this firm, I remember the proprietor addressing the students during dismissal. It’s a private school with nursery, primary and secondary sections.
In the month of August, I couldn’t get any financial transactions from them because the firm wasn’t running a summer lesson program where they could generate income. Yesterday, he told me in the last session, he had a total of 62 students in his schools but now his students are less than 15.
Some parents withdrew their children and enrolled them in public schools shortly after the COVID-19 outbreak. Many couldn’t pay for the school fees they owed the school.
Because of the school’s numerical strength at the moment, he had retrenched some of his staff.
Most times I only get to see income recorded for one day in a week.
Michael Enyam
Code: NG556
I have mentioned before about one of my firms who is very meticulous in keeping records even before he became part of us. I also remember sharing that, when I asked him for the worst month in his business, he brought a record from 2015.
Now, I want to share with you a little about how he started his business.
His 47th birthday was on September 3rd. I forgot to attend even though he invited me. He started his business of printing when he was 20, studying Economics at university. He was still working with his Dad and he was getting paid a salary just like every other staff. His Dad also owned a large printing firm. So he started his business and started collecting jobs from people, using his father’s equipment and paying him while he saves some. He finally got a shop for himself and started advertising his business and distributing flyers on the road. After a few years in the business, he was struggling to pay his staff, and the business folded. He started working with the United Bank of Africa as a marketer and was paid a little below 100K so he started saving money again so he can start his business better. After a few years with the bank, the bank reviewed their performances and decided to sack everyone in the marketing department so he fell back into his business.
He started all over again distributing flyers, reduced the price of printing, and bought more printing machines. Currently, he has 4 paid employees whom he pays 50K, 30K, 25K, and 20K monthly.
He said after a few years in his business, he told himself he was not going to work for someone else again.
Brethren, if you enter his office, you would want to spend more time there especially when it’s sunny. His AC is top-notch, he has background music, and the man is down to earth with his employees.
Omolola
Code: NG442
The firm owner is a sonographer by profession but he runs a medical laboratory where he carries out laboratory tests, ECG, X-ray, and ultrasound. He started the business 5 months ago. The laboratory was franchised to him. He got the link through a friend and he decided to take it up. All equipment was already available at the laboratory when he took over. He had an agreement with the owner to pay a particular amount monthly for using the name/registration and the equipment. He employed 3 staff when he started (a medical laboratory scientist, a front desk officer, and a marketer). He however complained that some of the equipment is outdated, which is one of the reasons they are not doing as well as expected. He also said they do not have the capacity to run some chemistry tests at the firm so he partnered with another lab and they collect samples from customers and run the test at another lab. They also pay consultants to help them interpret their radiology tests.
He is presently working towards getting modern equipment which he feels will increase patronage.
A recent occurrence; The firm was burgled last week and the robbers stole the firm’s laptop
Secondly, his marketer resigned because he got a better offer elsewhere. He got another marketer with an increased salary payment. The marketer didn’t start with them at the beginning of the month but the firm owner decided to pay him his full salary when he paid others. He felt really sad that the new marketer stopped coming to work without prior notice as soon as he got his salary even though the month had not ended.
Right now, he just employed another marketer who has been working for a week. He hopes the new employee will be more reliable.
Thirdly, he recently increased the salary of his laboratory scientist and marketer due to the economic situation of the country.
Chinenye E
Code: NG730
Today, I visited one of my respondents who has been very accurate and detailed with her record-keeping. Upon getting there, I noticed she was not like her normal self and looked very unhappy. Upon inquiring, she told me robbers attacked her shop last night and carted away all 4 of her sewing machines, both electrical and manual. She said she came to work today and found her shop wide open and all her machines gone except for the weaving machine which must have been too heavy for them to carry. She said she had to call her employees to bring their personal machine to work today and that was what they used and that she doesn’t know how to start in this Christmas season that is right around the corner.
Chinenye E
Code: NG158
This respondent said he has not been feeling well for the past 2 days and has been managing his health. He told me his employee, who recently started working with them this October, was duped. She sold eggs and Indomie worth N203,000 (489 USD) to a walk-in customer who paid her and left. Later when our respondent came in, he discovered that the money paid was counterfeit. By then they had already made away with his goods. The respondent lamented that he is suffering such a loss at a time when his business is already not doing very well.
Precious Ita
Code: NG670
So last night, when I had retired to bed, my phone rang. It was one of my respondents. I wasn’t sure what it could have been about. I picked up her call anyway and after we had exchanged pleasantries, she said she got a call from Google Map and she was asked to confirm her new location and she wanted to be sure that L-IFT had nothing to do with it.
Sidenote; Before yesterday, she had told me she relocated to her current location not so long ago.
So I told her that it was very possible that Google was trying to update her visibility to her customers and carry her customers and prospective customers along, and that it had nothing to do with L-IFT.
I was waiting for the next question when she said “Okay, I just wanted to confirm from you.”
Folaranmi Olarinde
Code: NG196
So this firm has been complaining of low patronage since we started this project. It gets as bad as not having any income for 2 weeks at a stretch. Take for instance his report for last the 2 weeks which I recorded yesterday; he has income only once and he was not really happy about it. Meanwhile, he was telling me about a job he was bidding for and yesterday he said they finally gave him the job.
Deborah Ekundina
Code: NG239
My story for today is in form of a testimony. One of my respondents’ work has been put to bed and I’m glad for a successful delivery.
Folaranmi Olarinde
Code: NG112
This firm is one of my respondents’ that is very detailed in his record-keeping. Last week when I was asking questions on the firm history survey, he opened up to me that he was very close to closing down the firm. His firm was established on 11th November 2011 (11/11/11) meaning the firm will clock 10 years next month. He said he has decided on closing down that very day because of some issues like work stress, low patronage, and an increase in the price of goods in the country. He told his wife about it and she begged him not to close down. He further told one of his friends and he advised him to rebrand and expand his business instead of closing down. So right now he is looking for another space around Ogba (Ikeja) which will serve as a branch office.
Michael Enyam
Code: NG322
For about 3 weeks now this firm owner has been sick and receiving treatment. I had to do the last interview (profile and special event Surveys) in her house. She’s a young lady. She has moved from her former house which was closer to her shop, and she now spends more than N500 traveling to her shop daily from her new location. She’s currently working on relocating her business closer to her house. The last time I visited, she was fixing the new location.
According to her, after the COVID-19 break, she lost most of her customers because she lost her first child during that time and which kept her away from her shop for 3 – 4 months and her employees cannot sew well. Her income generation at the moment is poor and she’s not proud of how the business has been lately.
Precious Ita
Code: NG281
This particular firm owner has the same thing to say almost every time I visit his firm. (The same one I had told us about; the one that said he does not make sales but he has people who randomly give him money) So he says business has been bad, with no customers and a high cost of work materials in the market.
So, just while we were having that conversation, a customer walks in. Please note that I had never seen a customer there before in all my visits to his firm. The firm owner combines schooling with his business, thus he is not always at his firm, so I usually have to call him to schedule an appointment or call to be sure he is at his firm and available to talk to me. I was slightly happy (maybe for him), to see a customer walk in.
Then the customer says why she was there, to make a photocopy, and this man confidently told this customer that he could not attend to her and that she should go to another firm. The customer then says, “Okay, what if I make two copies instead of the one that I originally wanted to make?”
The firm owner then says, “No don’t worry. There’s no light and I can’t turn on the generator for just 2 copies. There are other photocopy firms here. Just go this way (points towards a direction to show her where to go and make her copies).”
Wow!
Ibe Amaka Chinwe
Code: NG760
On Saturday, I visited this respondent with FR4. Even though she was around, she said she had numerous activities in the shop to attend to which she was unable to do on Thursday because of the sit at home on that day. She asked that the financial reporting be postponed to next week as she does not have any second to spare.
She complained that they only worked on Tuesday and Friday as the 3-day sit at home order really disrupted a lot of business activities for firm owners.
Oluwakemi Adepetu
Code: NG718
This firm was the one I reported about that wanted their financial transactions reported on the first week of September. On my module two observation, the firm was under lock and key, same in module three. I called the firm owner to ask if all was well but he mentioned that once I come for the first transaction recording we would talk. On getting to his house, he helped me realize that he was not making many sales as he no longer has a delivery van to distribute his bread. Hence, he paused production while he raises some money to get a delivery van for distribution. I was able to record one-week worth of transactions as he closed the business some days after the account was set up.
He has another source of income managed by his wife which is selling cereal and training students how to bake a cake. He asked if the other source can be a part of SFD even though I had added it as the other income source. The business has not started operations and he has sophisticated machinery.
Deborah Ekundina
Code: NG430
So I was supposed to visit this respondent last week Tuesday, but her number wasn’t going through. I was getting frustrated by Kaduna’s network problems. I kept calling her line but to no avail. I tried her line for several days but I still couldn’t reach her. Her number finally went through on Thursday but she didn’t answer the call. At this point, I was already scared of losing a respondent. I was wondering could possibly be the problem. She’s not taking her calls nor is she returning missed calls. So my supervisor proposed we visit her tomorrow.
Luckily for me today, she called me but I missed her call. I was happy to see her missed call on my phone. So my supervisor called her back and she apologized for not taking her calls all this while. She also explained how she forgot her phone at her relative’s house last week when she visited.
Finally, I am seeing her tomorrow.
Barakat Bello
Code: NG766
So, today, I joined my team in the waka “the trekking team”. The place we visited was under construction, blocked, and, hence, not motorable. After having to trek to one respondent’s place, my FR said that there is another respondent in a farther place that we have to trek to meet. So, God decided to favor us with network and we were able to call the second respondent that told us that she won’t be at the firm today and that we needed to reschedule.
Barakat Bello
Code: NG194
This is my beautiful respondent who is always gisting me about his employees and their troubles. The ones on salary may come for only 2 weeks out of a month and the ones getting paid by piece decide on which days to come or not. Most of the time, he stays in the shop alone. One employee that traveled before we did set up has refused to come back.
Whenever I start recording employees’ hours worked, he always complains about all of them on a weekly basis. One even took a loan and refused to come to work so that he won’t have to pay back the loan, at least that’s what the owner thinks.
So, I visited his shop last week and met the place locked. Both he and his employee were looking for where the employee kept the key.
Upon asking him what happened, he explained that he lost a friend and went for the burial, leaving the employee at the firm. But the employee decided to lock the shop and go out, only for him to come back and find that the key is missing. He had to get a welder to open the shop, and he paid him from the firm.
Magdaline Musa
Code: NG190
So yesterday I was able to visit my respondent who has been away for 3 weeks. Even though, when I met him in the morning, he was very busy and he snuck out of the interview. My supervisor and I had to go to other firms where we literally walked like the children of Israel going to Cannan land. After I had done most of my interviews I went back to the firm and met the respondent again. I told him how it wasn’t fair that he snuck out of the interview without saying a word to me. He apologized and told me that NEPA had cut his light and he had a situation where a competitor followed the truck of feeds he was delivering to another state to meet his customer and how that act had affected his income. He had to travel to this customer who usually buys his feeds in hundreds of bags to know what had affected their relationship. The customer told him and he was disappointed by the act of the said competitor. But the good news is while we were conducting the interview, the customer called and placed an order for some feeds. Even though I was unable to do the surveys with him because he snuck out on the interview again as if he was going to ease himself. But I will do the survey in our next interview.
Barakat Bello
Code: NG418
I hope we are allowed to patronize our respondents, some of them are really nice to us
So, after an interview with a respondent, out of curiosity, I asked how much he will make for a complete bed set, and he said N250,000. Inside my mind, I was like, “His things are expensive.”
Then we visited him again about 4 weeks after and he was telling us about how the inflation rate is affecting his business. He showed us a material that was N6,000 (14.5 USD) early this year but is now N15,000 (36 USD), and another that was N6,000 is now N18,000 (33.5 USD).
He further explained that he has had to refund some customers due to a daily hike in the prices of raw materials. He said he normally makes a TV-stand for N15,000, but the one he is making now is N50,000 (120 USD). He told us about a woman that asked him for the price of a bed some weeks back. He told her N250,000 and the woman transferred the complete cost for 2 beds to his account, N500,000. But by the time he went to the market to buy the materials, he realized he will run at a loss. He called the woman back to pls make it N600,000 (1,445 USD), but she said she couldn’t afford it, so, he refunded the money
He said that will be the 3rd time he will refund a customer in recent times. This particular respondent goes weeks without income, he has to travel to look for jobs, and he still has to refund customers.
It was my first time hearing such, but not the first for my FR who was with me. She said she has about 2 other respondents that have refunded customers due to a daily price hike of raw materials.
Barakat Bello
Codes: NG430 and NG287
Ok, so, everyone is tired of the Kaduna team lamenting on how the ban on motorcycles is affecting our fieldwork, well, turns out, we aren’t alone.
So, we visited a respondent who operates from home today and we just got talking about the transportation challenges, how the ban on motorcycles has increased the pressure on tricycles and buses, and how she saw a lot of lapping and passengers agreeing to stay in the boot of buses just to be transported.
She went on to tell us how the cost of delivery has multiplied. For someone like her that works from home (we have never met a customer in her house), she relies heavily on delivery for both her customers and for buying things online. She explained how this doubled price of delivery has affected her business as customers find it difficult to afford the cost of delivery.
Then we moved on to the next respondent, who informed us that he doesn’t come to the shop daily again as the cost of transportation to the shop is expensive when compared to the cost in the past. He explained how the ban on motorcycles makes him spend more on transportation and how he has to stay at home if he can’t afford it.
Magdaline Musa
Code: NG484
So I had to come to my respondent’s house early because we couldn’t do the surveys yesterday. I decided to take a tour of her farm and I was surprised to see the number of different varieties of plants that she had. Fruits like black Berry, Jack fruit, breadfruit, olive tree, apple tree, star fruit, gall bananas and plantains, passion fruits, African rose apples, cherry tomatoes, Chinese green beans, lemons, Indian lemon, English lemon crane Berry, mule Berry, strawberry, grapevine, turmeric, ginger, etc.
Oluwakemi Adepetu
Code: NG266
I got a call from NBS staff on Monday for a supervisory visit for today at 2 pm. I usually visit this respondent every Wednesday. I had also pre-informed her of the NBS visit. I got there and the NBS staff joined me, and we started our normal business. Mr. Uche of NBS then asked her for the name of her business. She answered and I also reiterated the name which was her native name then I explained to Mr. Uche the origin of the name. My respondent then replied saying, “That’s also the name of my business. In fact, I have it on my signpost” I was shocked because ever since I started working closely with her, I have not seen or observed any signpost. I didn’t pass any remarks even though I have not filled out the observation survey for the week. We started with the financial tools survey but the assets part didn’t pop up. I tried all sorts of log-in and log-out methods yet the asset section didn’t pop up. I had to go ahead with the financial tools section so as not to waste time.
I finished with that and filled her financial transactions for the week and carried out the special event survey. Finally, we completed the day’s task and Mr. Uche of NBS took his leave. I walked him out and we had some discussions outside the firm’s shop. Then I looked up and saw the beautiful signpost. Mr. Uche left and I went in to meet my respondent and then asked her about the signpost. She said her husband was the one who fixed it yesterday. I said “Wow, this is a good one” and then I asked to take a picture of the signpost then congratulated her. I later told her that I need to check the Financial and Asset surveys if they would load so that I can ask her the other questions. Guess what she told me, “We have closed our session for this week come back next week to ask me those questions.”
Chinenye E
Code: NG706
This respondent owns a school. Before now, she had complained that COVID really affected her as she lost a lot of pupils because they either relocated or their parents couldn’t afford the school fees anymore and had to put them in public schools. She had once told me that they usually say the first two years of starting a business are rocky before you start making a profit, but her second year fell into a COVID year (2020) so she is counting this year as her second year. She also said that she has not been making a profit since after COVID and sometimes have to add money from other sources to keep her school afloat. She is however watching this second year to know the next step to take.
Yesterday, during reporting, she told me she didn’t make any money in the past week as they were closed all through except on Friday. She equally complained that the constant sit-at-home and security issues are affecting the Children’s scheme of work (curriculum) for the term. Last week alone they lost 4 days: Monday and Thursday to sit-at-home orders, Tuesday was a public holiday and Wednesday was Endsars memorial and she asked her pupils to stay home for fear of their safety.
Chinenye E
Code: NG358
This respondent has been very detailed in her weekly reporting and told me, some weeks back, that clothes have not been coming in this season like they used to in other years towards Christmas. Yesterday, she told me she got a new customer that has been bringing clothes for her steadily and she is happy. She hopes the customer continues that way.
She also complained that, in the last week alone, her employees were at home on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and she doesn’t open on Saturdays for now so they only worked two times. She said It’s “cutting a lot of gap for her”, meaning she is losing time.
Chinenye E
Code: NG730
This is my respondent whose sewing machines were stolen last week. She was looking unbothered yesterday and I asked how she has been faring since the incident. She told me she believes it’s someone that knows her that stole her sewing machines, but even though the person wanted to do her bad, God has used that to advertise her. She said she got a lot of jobs this week and also sold a lot of materials and that she plans on restocking materials this week and prays business stays this good so she can replace all the stolen machines. For now, she has bought one for herself while her employees brought the ones they have at home to use at work for the time being. The employees go home with their machines every day as she doesn’t want to risk a repeat of the robbery.
Ugwu
Code: NG328
On the scheduled visit to this respondent yesterday I noticed that she was busier than usual with so many customers around her.
When I asked her why the unusual scenario, she told me that the 3 days the firm did not open last week due to the sit-at-home action and “End Sars” memorial made her unable to meet her customers’ demands and some of her employees who could have assisted her with the work didn’t come to work so she was left to do all the work alone.
Some of the customers were visibly angry and felt disappointed but she kept pleading with them to understand that the fault wasn’t entirely hers.
I sat down, waiting patiently until she attended to the last customer before we commenced the weekly interview.
Precious Ita
Code: NG224
This respondent has a photo studio and a workshop just by the side of the photo studio where he frames enlarged photos. The firm was established in 1977.
He keeps his records meticulously, even his personal expenses. When we joined this project, this respondent, just like many others, thought it was solely for giving SMEs financial assistance, so he kept saying repeatedly how he needs financial assistance from the project and if it was not going to give him money, he was not interested. I took the time to explain the goals and objectives to him. After all the explanations, he would still say that it is money he wants, but this time after the explanation, he says it with a broad smile on his face. He still teases me with this most times when I visit his firm. Before now he used to find it difficult to hand me his records. He would just say it with words of mouth, “Precious, no sales. COVID messed things up and there is no money. It is money that I need”, but now he gives me his records effortlessly.
I asked him what he intends to do with the money and he said that thieves had broken into his firm three times through the ceiling and made away with most of his work tools and assets, like his camera, so he had to take a loan to sort that. So he said that he has a plan on how they can go about completely stopping thieves from gaining access to the firm but his challenge is money. I sympathized with him and told him all will be fine.
Precious Ita
Code: NG544
This respondent is not available most of the time at his firm, so he had asked his secretary to record his financial transactions. Unfortunately, on my last visit to the firm, there was no record though I met his secretary. I noticed she looked pale.
I asked her why there was no record if all was fine and she said that she was not feeling well and had not been to work most of last week and had not seen her boss, though the firm had been open and other employees were at work.
Chinenye E
Code: NG324
I visited one of my respondents. He was a late addition, in fact, the last firm to be added. The respondent said he is presently doing the interior furniture for a new house so he is often not at the shop but if anybody needs him they can call him on the phone and schedule a meeting.
He also said that he works from his workshop at home during sit-at-homes and that his boys work there more when they have a job to deliver and sleep over at his house so they can do the job marathon till they are done.
Chinenye E
Code: NG712
Yesterday, I visited one of my respondents, who is into Laboratory services, for a scheduled meeting. The respondent apologized that she cannot tend to me as they are waiting for an inspection by the Medical Lab Council and her nerves are everywhere. She heard they have been sealing up labs and she needs to be sure that everything is intact, and she is not sure how long it will take before they come so she cannot ask me to come back on the same day. I told her I will call to know how it goes and wished her all the best.
Victor
Code: NG208
So I visited one of my firms, a business center, for reporting yesterday and to my surprise, the firm was completely shut down.
I couldn’t reach the firm Manager as both she and the firm owner’s lines are inaccessible.
The firm owner has been out of Enugu since reporting commenced and delegated reporting duties to the manager who has been committed, notwithstanding the challenges the firm faces. One major challenge is a steady increase in the price of raw materials such as printing paper ink and photographic film without an increase in the price of service as they feel this will further drive patronage lower.
I have them in my prayers and do hope all is well with them.
I’ll keep calling and check back next week.
Michael Enyam
Code: NG245
I remember telling you last time about this firm whose employee under-reported income that was generated from the firm when the firm owner was not around.
It has been more than 2 weeks since the employee stopped coming to work.
2 weeks ago I was with the firm owner and 2 customers came looking for services that would require graphic design and printing but, unfortunately, the firm owner is not proficient in graphic design so he directed them to the next shop. One of his employees who’s good at graphic design had stopped working.
Throughout our discussion, he became more and more uncomfortable. So this week, Thursday, I visited his firm as it’s the usual day and I discovered that he has placed an advert for a graphic designer.
While doing the Financial Tool Survey I asked, “Do you save for your business sir”?. And he answered, “Michael, you have been visiting my firm since your project started. Sometimes for 2 weeks, I don’t generate income from this business and when it comes it’s usually less than N5000. Is it the money I’m generating once a month that I will save?”
I was surprised by this and was left speechless.
He added that he is now focusing on surviving.
Ugwu
Code: NG221
This carpentry firm was established in 1999 and it was the only carpentry firm in this area for many years. The business is owned by a husband and wife. The wife is in charge of the sales unit while the husband is in charge of production.
In the course of our interaction yesterday, the respondent told me of a major business setback the firm suffered in 2016. There was a fire incident in the firm. The cause of the fire which started around 1 am was unknown and the efforts of the men of the State Fire Service who came to rescue the situation proved abortive as everything inside the shop was completely destroyed.
Some officials of the state government who came later made promises to assist them, which the respondent said were never fulfilled.
However, the firm was able to start again from scratch through the efforts of some family members and friends, and the firm is gradually growing again.
On a lighter note, she said, “ If the fire incident had not happened, we wouldn’t have been selected for the small firm Diaries project because the firm would have grown to the extent that it won’t meet the criteria of a small firm.”
Precious Ita
Code: NG131
I visited this respondent last week. I asked her for her financial transactions for the last week and to please give me her diary. Then she started laughing. I started asking myself if I had said something funny, then she said, “Sister Precious, there’s nothing at all in the book.” I thought she probably forgot to write her transactions down, so I asked her to tell me with word of mouth. She said that there was nothing. I started encouraging her to write and keep her records and all that because I was thinking she just didn’t want to write down her transactions, but she kept quiet and was just gawking at me. The next thing she said was, “if there was anything, I would have written or at least told you. I made just N3000 and that was today. I did not make sales this week, nothing. The one person I worked for is even owing me.”
Coincidentally, the man (the debtor) walked in. She asked him for her money and the man was acting funny, telling her he had no money and was just walking away. The respondent had so much pain in her eyes.
After he left, I asked her if she had written the loan given down. She said no and that she is tired of her customers taking her for granted. Then I told her she had not told me anything about that before. She said it just gets her annoyed and she has been looking for a way to restrategize to stop the debts. I encouraged her to keep the records of everything, and she said that she knows I said that, but she forgot and since sales are not forthcoming, it’s tiring. She said she even reached out to one of the companies she designs calendars for and they are yet to give her feedback. She showed me their WhatsApp chat. She said her business hasn’t been this bad.
When I was asking her the financial tools survey, when I got to the question asking if she gives loans, she exclaimed and said it’s a normal thing her customers do to her and she is really not pleased. I told her it has to reflect in the data she gives me. Then she asked me to please always carry her along so that she can do better with giving her data.