Business
High Cost Of Living Forces PH Residents Back To Villages
Some residents of Port Harcourt, are relocating to their villages in droves due to the high cost of living in the city.
The Tide learnt that the high cost of living in Port Harcourt is already having a toll on many residents who have taken decisions to relocate to their neighboring communities.
Some of the residents in Port Harcourt told The Tide that they could no longer cope with high cost of items in Port Harcourt and are therefore contemplating relocation to nearby villages.
Mrs Constance Okere who recently relocated from Port Harcourt to Etche said she took the decision because she could no longer bear the cost of living in Port Harcourt.
“If I continue to stay in Port Harcourt, buying garri, beans and other items at the cut-throat price, in addition to paying rent, my family can not meet up.
“We have large farm land, so I will be operating from home. Since the Covid-19 lockdown, things have not been easy for us, garri alone is something else.
“Since then, I have been farming, and it has been helping us. I make fufu, garri and other items from my village, and I come back to Port Harcourt with my children to sell them.
“When it finishes, I go back with my children. Sometimes, my husband joins us in the village. That’s how we have been managing this period of high cost”, she said.
Mrs Okere who is an auxiliary nurse by training, posited that farming has really helped her family, especially her husband who, she said, is a welder, to meet up with some demands in the city.
Meanwhile, Mr Loveday Okoro, who hails from the neighboring state, Abia, but residing in Port Harcourt, said that he could no longer cope with the high cost of living in the city.
“I do not have a steady job right now, since my job was stopped during Covid-19 lockdown. I just managed to pay my new rent, since my former landlord asked me to vacate from his property.
“My wife and children have already gone home (Umuahia) and I will be operating in-between home and Port Harcourt. At least, home is better for now, as you can farm and get some things to eat without buying.
“In Port Harcourt here, you buy everything. Now is the farming season, we are farming. My wife has plan-ted heavily, and we will from now on, be doing more farming work in the village, and will be visiting Port Harcourt to stay from time to time”, he said.
The Tide reports that many residents of Port Harcourt are lamenting over continuous increase in cost of items ,especially foodstuffs in the market.
Since last year’s lockdown occasioned by the outbreak of Covid-19, prices of food items have gone up by 300 percent and there seems to be no end to it.
Efforts by the government to cushion the effects of the lockdown was only temporary as prices of food items have now skyrocketed beyond control.
By: Corlins Walter