“We Can’t Wait To Have Students Back On Campus”
…Food Vendors, Cab & Business Centres’ Operators
Food Vendors, commercial cab operators and petty traders, operating in the University, have expressed anxiety to have the students, who have been on break since July, back on campus.
The students’ populace had gone on long break, following the regularization of the Academic Calendar by the University authorities.
However, the unfamiliar break duration, cherished by UNAABITES, has since been a source of worry for food vendors and other merchants who have been experiencing low patronage, occasioned by the thin population on campus.
As such, Business Centres’ operators have been lamenting the resultant little or no passengers to board their taxis, patronize their photocopier machines, or eat in their café, among others.
Food Vendors stressed that their plight was worsened by the recent 30-day Ramadan period, which further reduced the few patrons, but were quick to appreciate the surge they witnessed during the recent Post UTME exercises.
Checks further revealed that the experience was more felt at Camp, a satellite community, densely populated and heavily dependent on student patronage.
A cross-section of petty business operators in Camp, told UNAAB Bulletin that since the students went on break, their businesses had suffered depression.
One of them was the operator of the students’ popular eatery, OROMBOs, which had remained a shadow of its old self since the break.
Also affected are Hair Dressing Salons and Business Centres, who disclosed that since their student-customers went home for the holiday, business has been at its lowest ebb.
Impressed by the news of the impending resumption of the students, they expressed joy that normalcy will be restored to their businesses.
The business merchants said they could no longer wait to have the students back on campus, allaying fears that they would jerk-up prices of their goods and services as a result of the “October Rush”.