Ruth Izang, women leader of Jos-Jarawa Tomatoes Market by Cele Bridge, in Jos, Plateau State has revealed how the market women buy lands and build houses from vegetable sales.
See excerpts from her interview with Daily Trust;
Since the inception of the market what have you achieved?
We have gained a lot of benefits and have been able to achieve a lot of things. Through this market, we have recorded tremendous growth in our lives of which some of us would not have been able to achieve. We have also been able to save money to do other things through daily contributions and monthly contributions. For the daily contribution you can put in any amount and collect your money at the end of the month, while the collectors/keepers who records your daily keep in a card removes one day contribution from your money for his/her services before handing the rest over to you. Some women have built houses and purchased land from their savings.
Talking about women buying lands and building houses, do you mean that they are the ones doing that for their husbands?
Not really. Some of them live in their husbands’ houses and the one they built from their trade is put on rent. Some others are widows and after they finish building their house they will pack in with their children. In all the gesture is not to take over the men’s responsibility but to complement their efforts and to assist the family generally.
How is the association encouraging more people to go into the business?
We are advising women who are not into apprenticeship or businesses of any kind to wake up because the era of redundancy is over. It is high time for women to engage themselves in something. They should stand up and try to stabilize their family with their contribution because building a family is a collective responsibility today. Let women come out and key into businesses, even ours, in order to help their husbands and children. The young and unmarried girls, they can make themselves useful and even before marriage they will make good earnings and be independent.