Computer village, known worldwide as the Electronics hub of Lagos has found its sales of mobile phones suffering a slump as the economic downturn has hit consumers hard.
The normally buoyant mobile phone business has suffered a setback as more and more consumers prefer to take the riskier option of the roadside vendors who could sell them phones at a cheaper price.
This has made it difficult for the licensed stores to make sales as they have been hit quite hard by this, with one operator commenting that this is bad as it has ever been in years.
“Prices of devices have dramatically gone up while customers’ purchasing power is getting weaker. So many factors especially with the fluctuations in the currency market can be blamed for this. But we cannot sell below cost price.
“Most of the phones sold on the roadside are not original but because they are cheaper, people prefer to patronise roadside kiosks. Besides, most people can no longer afford a new device, this explains why they patronise the grey market to get used phones which in most cases are stolen,” he said.
According to Thisday, a potential buyer when approached while trying to buy from a roadside vendor said, “I can only get what my pocket can afford here, if you go to those shops, all they know how to do is to speak big grammar and charge you high, but these guys here will take you to the negotiation table and give you a satisfying price for a desired phone, whether new or used one”.
The electronic world isn’t the only one being affected by market factors as it was reported that the consumption of petrol has also reduced by a whopping 30 per cent as people are becoming more money conscious of their pockets.