Fufu Sellers Solicit Equipment To Boost Business

Some fufu sellers in Mararaba, Nasarawa state, has called on government to provide them with equipment to facilitate cassava processing and boost their businesses.

The fufu sellers made the call on Monday in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Mararaba, Nasarawa state.

Mrs Mary Aigbe, a popular cassava seller in Angwe Doka community in Mararaba, said she ventured into the cassava business in 2002. She said that the business has helped her to take care of her family, even though she still runs it as a small-scale business.

According to her, the business wasn’t profitable when I started due to lack of funds to purchase cassava in large quantities. ”But now, with the proceeds I have gathered from the business, I now buy in large quantities and lack of storage equipment has now become a major challenge.

”With adequate equipment, I will be able to process more fufu and that means more sales and more profit,” she said.

Aigbe said that she has been using manual methods over the years which is very stressful.

She said that the challenge of peeling and pounding cassava is backbreaking, hence the need for the equipment to reduce the hardwork.

Miss Victoria Izehi, another fufu seller, said that the lack of equipment is discouraging youths from coming into the business, adding that she trained herself through school with the proceeds from fufu business. Izehi said provision of equipment like pounding and peeling machines would go a long way in boosting production.

”I learnt the trade from my mother and with it, she trained four of my siblings through the university,” she said.

She appealed to the Federal Government to provide the necessary equipment to help facilitate their trade.

Mr Ohis Onime, a cassava seller, said provision of soft loans by the Federal Government to fufu sellers would help them to acquire equipment and stop the manual processing, while encouraging more participation in the business.

Onime advised other fufu sellers to endure the challenges encountered in the business as they wait on the federal Government to help expand their businesses in the country.