By Onyeje Abutu-Joel
Makurdi
Tailors, popularly called fashion designers, in Makurdi, Benue State say the economic downturn in the country has drastically affected their business even with the Christmas and New Year celebrations around the corner.
A cross-section of the tailors, who spoke in Makurdi on Thursday, lamented that they were faced with an unprecedented low patronage.
Some of them said the experience had never been so bad, pointing out that they never had such low patronage since they started the business of clothes making some years ago.
Mr Sunny Ojabo, who specialised in making male clothes, said that in the past, he usually hired extra hands two months ahead of Christmas “because of the volume of work during the festivities”.
Ojabo, however, said that he did not bother to hire any person this season because of low patronage.
“I used to employ some people before Christmas so that they can help me with the work because I normally get many clothes to sew at this period.
“But this season, I noticed that many people did not bring clothes to be made for their children so ‘I match break’.
“Even those who managed to bring their children’s clothes were underpricing my workmanship, complaining of hard economy,” Ojabo said.
Mrs Regina Uja also that only a few people came to sew their children’s Christmas clothes this season.
Uja said that in the past, she used to set a time to start rejecting fresh jobs for fear of not meeting up with the delivery date.
“But this season, I had to start calling my customers on phone to bring their children’s clothes for sewing.
“I have to check on my customers to seek for their patronage this year because they were not coming.
“I was wondering if I had done something wrong but on a second thought, I decided to call them because I couldn’t have wronged everyone at the same time.
“They all complained of the hardship in the country so I had to promise to give them discount, despite the high cost of tailoring materials in the market,” Uja said.
Miss Gloria Tondo said that previous seasons, both the old and new customers usually struggled for space in her shop two months before Christmas to secure appointments with her to make their children’s Christmas wears.
Tondo said that was because of her ability to turnout wears that were close to ready-made in the market at cheaper rates.
However, she said her shop was “dry” this year because her customers could not afford her services due to the poor economy.
“This year, almost all my customers went for second-hand clothes in Ariaria Market, Aba for their children because people do not have money,” she said.
