1 month ago
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Fishermen returning from a fishing trip
As farmers and residents continue to count their losses following the recent flooding which ravaged Maiduguri and its environs, some fishermen and fish dealers have taken advantage of the post-flood fish boom to become millionaires.
Our correspondent who interacted with some dealers on Sunday in the Kwoshebe area of Mafa Local Government, along the route leading to Central African countries observed how children, women and youths in high numbers mounted in-water traps and other fish-catching methods such as baiting and netting to harvest swarms of fishes from the waterways.
“I will be sincere with you, I have never made it from fishing this month. I am a fish dealer, I only come to this village with my car to load fish in basins and sacks directly from these people (fish farmers) as they are bringing them out from the river” said Abdullahi Dahiru, a fish dealer
According to him, “The prices of these fishes vary. We buy it here at a wholesale price and based on sizes but when we get to town, we sell them based on the types of fish and quantity too. As you see, the size of the basin varies, there is one for 12,000, 7, 000 naira and even 18,000 naira. Though I can’t tell you how much we sell in town, but trust me, the business is worth it”. He disclosed.
Another dealer, Kabiru Muhammed said, “Since after the flood began to recede we gained access to this side of the zone, I do come here with two cars and I will load them with fishes and sell them all that day. My profit is double and this is why we are taking advantage of the period to see how we can get as much as possible before it finally recedes”
“The profit made me a millionaire at some point, but Alhamdulilah, even till now, we still hope to get more fish so that we can make more money to at least help us to cater to the loss we experienced from the flooding” he stated.
For the Fishermen and women, the sudden flooding has also become an economic gain as they stated that they have been committed to both day and night fishing from the waterway.
“Myself and family have turned this site into our daily job. I come here in the morning to check my overnight traps (netting) while my son engages in baiting. At the end of the day we sell them to these people you see here with cars (car dealers)” Adamu Aji stated
“We have never had fish this much, you can’t leave your net here overnight and not come to meet plenty of fish, in fact, almost every bait you throw will catch a fish, so this period has been good to us. We hope to make meaningful life out of it,”he noted.
On her part, a mother of two kids, Fati Muhammad told our correspondent that her standard of living has improved since the flood while noting that she now depends fully on the daily profit from the fish business.
“Fishing has been my business for Long, but you know, before the flooding, there was not much rain, and as such, the profit from fishing activities dropped, but today, it is not like that. Sometimes, I go home with 7,000 and sometimes 5,000 depending on my strength for the day. I have been doing this for the past 3 weeks. It is not as easy as you see it, but then, it has been profiting us”
