Anger, sadness or even fisticuffs is imminent when customers celebrate the forthcoming 2023 Eid-El-Fitr without their new cloth ready for the Sallah festivities in Kano state.
BizPoint reports that Kano, an Islamic state, is popular in the best Sallah celebration in the world, courtesy of its religious and rich cultural history.
Every Sallah season, especially Eid-El-Fitr, textiles and fashion markets and tailors make brisk business in the state, which is the commercial nerve centre of northern Nigeria and sub-saharan Africa.
However, the tailors in the state have threatened that many of their customers may not get their new clothes before the Eid this year.
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Some tailors that spoke with BizPoint in Fagge Local Government, a predominantly tailoring area, have said that majority of their customers did not bring their clothes for sewing before or early Ramadan.
According to them, most of them were even sleeping at their shops because they did not have much work to do at the beginning of Ramadan as the customers did not start bringing their clothes.
A popular tailor in the area, Salisu Barack, aka Salisu Aljan said many of his customers might not get their clothes ready before Sallah.
Giving his reasons, Aljan said due to cashless policy, most of the customers were unable to get cash to buy the textile materials towards the beginning of Ramadan.
According to him, it is midway to this year’s Ramadan that the customers, after the cash began to be available, that they started trooping to the tailoring shops with textile materials for sewing.
“As i am speaking to you now, i can not explain how i can settle my customers before Sallah. The task before me is huge that can not be completed before Sallah.
“The reason why we have found ourselves in this situation is that the cashless policy did not allow majority of our customers to buy clothes before Ramadan and bring to us before or early Ramadan for sewing as they used to do.
“Let me tell you, at the beginning of this Ramadan, we were even sleeping on our sewing machines because there was no much work. We were even wondering if we could get money to buy Sallah clothes for our family.
“Then, suddenly our customers began trooping to our shops with textile materials for sewing. Before we realised, we have been inundated with customers’ appointments.
“As i am speaking to you now, i can not tell you how many sets of cloth i have here for my customers. Honestly, may of them can not get their clothes ready before Sallah. But, i am trying my best to settle most of them. Those that could not get their clothes ready before Sallah, should bear with us because it is not our fault and we are trying to settle majority of them,” Salisu Aljan said.
Aljan also attributed the situation to failure of some customers to pay for the services instantly, which according to him, make them drop the ones that had not paid and do the work of those that paid.
He pointed out that failure to pay for the service is one of the major reasons why some customers might not het their clothes ready before Sallah as his attention had been shifted to the ones that paid instantly.
He lamented that the customers had caused the delays for themselves because they did not pay for the services until at the last hour then they would be rushing to offset the payment when “it is too late”.
Another tailor, Ibrahim Blacky, said he is passing night at the shop in a bid to make sure that he settle majority, if not all of his customers before Sallah.
“It is a big mission which i want to accomplish. I have left my home and parked here in my shop just to make sure i settle my customers. I am optimistic that i will accomplish this mission,” Blacky emphasized.
To Nura Mikel, an embroidery designer, he is facing challenges of increase in price of tailoring materials.
He explained that the price of the work remains stagnant as the customers refuse to accept the fact that there is inflation in the country.
“For over five years, the price of a neck-design of Kaftan remain the same while prices of tailoring materials such as thread, stiff collar, petroleum, have gone up. We end up getting not up to 20% of the amount we charge as profit.
“Remember, we have family. The amount we used to save has been dropped completely. What we get now is something to buy food for a day.
“Also, the customers are not helping matters as they don’t want to pay for service. They pay part of it and some of them would not even pay the balance. This is one of the reason we drop their clothes and go to those that pay completely. That is why we have backlog of the clothes because as the Sallah festivities draw nearer, it is when you will see the customers rushing to pay the money for us to complete their clothes. That is why many of them do lot her their clothes ready before Sallah,” Mikel explained.
