The #EndSARS protests curfew imposed on Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial city by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, on Tuesday is beginning to take a toll on economic activities, especially the Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) who depend largely on daily wages for survival.
Governor Sanwo-Olu, had in the wake of protests by agitators allegedly hijacked by hoodlums now looting and dispossessing innocent citizens of their valuable assets imposed a 24 hour curfew in all parts of the city.
But the restriction of movement of goods and persons across the state, appears to be taking a toll on SMEs operators with many already counting their losses.
Most of the SMEs operating community shops including barbers, hairdressers, sachet water and soft drink sellers for daily income told Daily Sun in separate interviews that the curfew would further impoverish them.
This was even as they explained that the poor electricity supply has put a further stress on their businesses coupled with the shutdown of fuel stations due to the curfew imposed on the state. The SMEs entreprenuers disclosed that most of them depend on their mini generators as a means of power supply back up but could not power same due to unavailability of fuel across major fuel stations.
A visit by Daily Sun across fuel stations owned by major and independent marketers within the Lagos metropolis of Abule Egba, Iju and College Road up to Ogba, revealed total shutdown of their operations in compliance with the curfew directive of the Lagos State Government.
A manager in one of the fuel retail outlets, Mr. Tajudeen Obalola, told Daily Sun that the fear of attacks on their facility informed the decision to shut down operations. He explained that oil workers are part of essential workers as hospitals and fire ambulances require fuel to respond to distress calls, noting that their inability to operate portends grave danger to emergency response. One of the SMEs operator in the soft drinks retail segment said her daily income of about N5,000 has been negatively impacted as a result of the curfew.
