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Cargo delays at airports affecting business – Entrepreneur

By BusinessNews Staff on June 14, 2015

An entrepreneur with interest in the boutique industry has lamented that cargo delays at the nation’s airports is seriously taking tolls on sales. In an interview with Vanguard, Mrs. Olaoti Efughi, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Annabel Boutique, said the key challenges facing people in business in the industry are the issue of cargo delays at the airports and the rate at which the Naira exchanges to foreign currencies.

“When I travel, I bring back samples along with me and the rest, I put in Cargo. But the problem is, sometimes, maybe because of Custom problem at the airport or one reason or the other, the goods don’t get here early enough to sell.

“For example, if you bring just a few things with your hand luggage just to advertise, and the rest are in cargo, and someone sees it and ask for five dozens of a particular shirt to take to Abuja or wherever, but your goods are not yet there, what you have might not be up to five dozens, and just like that, you are unable to sell to the person because you don’t yet have your goods,” she lamented.

Continuing, she said: “FOREX- Foreign Exchange is another constraint we face. Most banks don’t sell BTA for people who go to Dubai for business, apart from that, there is a limit of the amount of money that the bank changes, you are not to spend more than $4000 , so basically, you have the money, but you can’t really buy much.”

Fielding question on if she has been able to access microfinance banks loans to grow her business, she replied: “Actually, there was a time I wanted to buy a ‘mini shopping mall’, so I was thinking I would invest in that, so I approached my bank for a little facility and the conditions they gave me were not convenient, at the end of it all, I thought, why do I need to bother myself and go through so much stress.

Also, the interest rate they wanted to collect at that time which was about three years ago. But now, my business has grown, so, financially I am coping. I have no obligation to meet up with any bank, I value my sleep.”

When asked what her five years plan is, she said, “In the next five years, I want to have a complex where I will rent some shops, and have my own warehouse and shop. I want to have opened about two other branches of Annabel Boutique, and I want to have a mall.”

[Vanguard]

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