Some small business owners in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) have appealed to the Federal Government to expedite action on its intervention in the rising prices of goods in the country.
The Federal Government recently set up a high-powered committee to intervene in the rising cost of food items in the country.
The entrepreneurs spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.
They expressed their views against the backdrop of steady depreciation of naira exchange rate at the black market.
The naira has continued to depreciate against the dollar at the official rate at N305 to the dollar; it is currently between N500 and N510 to the dollar at the black market.
Mr Emeka Maduka, who sells food stuffs, advised the Federal Government to introduce some controls in the foreign exchange market.
Maduka said the measure could be used to save the naira from further depreciation, adding that the fluctuations in the exchange rate had negatively affected businesses in the country.
“Things are so bad that even the goods we provide in our country are now so expensive without any reason,’’ he said.
Mrs Rita Nzeli, a hair dresser, also said the effect of the exchange rate had caused prices of goods to increase by 50 per cent.
Nzeli said there was no reason why locally made products should increase so much because they were not purchased with dollars.
She said “the increase has even affected locally made relaxer and hair creams that we use in the salon’’.
Mr Ibrahim Usman, a trader, said the Federal Government should put in place strategies to ensure that the country manufactured things people consumed.
“We are more of a consuming economy than a producing economy, so what we need is to build factories where most goods we import will be manufactured.
“If we manufacture some of those things, people will not bother about the dollar or any other foreign currency because why most Nigerians travel is to buy goods from other countries,’’ Usman said. (NAN)
FNO/LAB/IA