Foreign exchange crisis killing our businesses, shop owners lament

Shop and Distributive Trade Senior Staff Association (SHOPDIS) has expressed concerns over the grappling volatility of the foreign exchange market and the attendant effects on their businesses, saying that the effect is biting hard on them.

The union’s first Vice President, Clifford Obanor, lamented that the challenges of accessing foreign exchange, high operating costs, and other inflationary pressure were contributing to the fall of their businesses.

He said: “To source for forex to bring in goods is now a big challenge. So many companies are not able to meet up with the demand for whatever products they want to distribute, either for raw materials or whatever.

“This is biting hard on so many of our member companies, and many of them are struggling to remain in the midst of all these.

“We believe strongly that if the government can address the problem of the naira going down, things will get better and the economy will recover.”

As part of efforts to address the challenges, the union said it is embarking on a one-week campaign, with the support of UNI Global, aimed to recruit and inaugurate more members into the union, SHOPDIS.

Obanor said the primary purpose was to unionise more members and to ensure that workers’ rights are adequately taken care of through a tripartite agreement.
He said the union has discovered that many workers in the distributive trade are not been taken care of by their employers.

“We see people working hard and not getting value for what they do. They don’t have a fair deal for their right. All these will be addressed through this campaign,” he said.

The Organising Secretary and UNI Global Project 60609 Coordinator, Olanrewaju Ganiyu, said the project, which is supported by UNI Global, is to establish workers’ rights and a decent work environment.

He stressed that the essence was to strengthen collective bargaining and for workers to defend their rights, adding that the campaign which would end on Saturday, was to dispel the fears of employees in knowing their rights.