High cost of products in Port Harcourt and other parts of Rivers State has been blamed on high transportation cost and the poor condition of the Port Harcourt/Aba expressway.
A Port Harcourt-based trader, Mr. Charles Igwe, said this in an exclusive interview with The Tide Monday in Port Harcourt.
He said ordinarily, the cost of items in Port Harcourt would have been fairly close to that of Aba and other areas, but due to the exorbitant transportation charges, traders in Port Harcourt add extra monies as to enable them make some profits.
Igwe noted that an item purchased at N300 in Aba can take close to N200 to transport to Port Harcourt, thus the high cost of products in the state.
According to him, since the target of every business operator was to make profit, it would be counter-productive to sell very close to the cost price,
In so doing, he said, the business would suffer series of set backs and possible closure.
He explained that the only way out was for government to fix the road and introduce subsidized transportation scheme as to reduce expenses on the side of traders.
The trader regretted that items like carpentary materials were in short supply in the state due to high cost of transportation.
He said furniture makers prefer buying in bits, rather than in bulk, so as to reduce cost.
Another issue he raised was the recklessness of drivers that ply the road, and added that they are fraudulent in their transactions.
He recalled how they fix different charges on each rainy day, thereby, complicating issues for traders whose products have a kind of fixed price.
Meanwhile, he has called on the Abia and Rivers governments to go out of their way and fix the road for the interest of their citizens, whom he said are the major users of the road.