By: NyimaSillah
So many of the small-scale businesses are running on loses since the coronavirus outbreak hits the country in March which has slowed down several operations of the business entities.
Some of the small-scale business owners continuing to raise concern over the situation which they said are causing huge loses on their businesses.
Susan Darling Ngum, chief executive officer of Susan Food Services said: “Covid-19 has caused a great effect on my business because all the offices that I do business with have closed because of the lockdown.”
As her business relies more on social ceremonies, Mrs Ngum lamented that “now no social ceremony is happening because of the lockdown.”
“I have not lay off any of my staff, and every month I pay my 13 staff despite that we are operating on loses daily,” she said.
The future of my businesses is blinking, she said, adding “I will have to lay off all the 13 staff if the situation continues in two months to come.”
She added: “since the declaration of public state of emergency the list catering we have is dinner Plaza and frozen snacks but that alone cannot sustain my business because I have to pay tax and pay my staff despite the low earning.”
She called on the government to revisit its decision on the lockdown for businesses, adding even in the developed countries are helping their businesses amid the pandemic
“Government should think the way forward to help us survive even if they have to put aside small money for small businesses that are registered in other to help them in this trying time. We are thinking of how to pay our staff and how to pay tax to keep the country going but they are not considering us”
Event planner, Francis Gomez, also said: “my business has seriously gone down as there are no events going on and even there is any, people do it indoors. That requires no decorations and that make the business poor because they don’t have bulking’s that can sustain the business during this lockdown.”
He said they have nothing like online business because their work is physical, so government should always think of the impacts of their decisions event though their main objective is to protect us from the deadly virus. But they should provide something for us that will able to help us sustain our businesses because we are still paying tax despite no income.”
