Even without any statistics to back his claim Yusuf Musa, 31, will dismiss an assumption that the sexual activities of an average Nigerian may have decreased as a result of the global economic meltdown. For the Lagos-based petty trader the reverse is the case. His recent experience, he told me, is enough to make him conclude that in spite of the economic crisis, people now have sex more regularly than the pre-crisis era as his Gold Circle condoms now enjoy more patronage than before.Musa, who hails from Kastina State, said he relocated to Lagos only a year ago in search of a greener pasture. “I came to Lagos early last year in search of a better means of livelihood,” he stated. His decision to relocate to Lagos was triggered by the impression that it is easier to make money in Lagos than in his state. But Musa soon realised that life in Lagos, like in many other places, is not a bed of roses as he had been made to believe. “I didn’t find it as easy as I had thought when I first got to Lagos. The first challenge I faced was where to live. Even many of my brothers from the north who have been here for a long time are still homeless,” he stated.
He however got an assistance from a fellow Malam who was a security man, given a house of his own by his boss. “I squatted with him for about two months while I was searching for a place where I could start my own business. At that time I had on me some money, which I had kept to start my own business. Within the first two months, I was actually assisting my friend and his boss was impressed. He was the one who helped to secure a place near his second house in Shasha area where I am at the moment,” he recalled.
Musa’s shop, a kiosk erected near a residential building in Alimosho local government area of Lagos State, contains an assortment of goods sold in units to people in the neighbourhood. Although he has a lot of competitors around him, Musa seems to have devised a remarkable strategy that is fast placing him on the edge of the rive competition.
According to him, the magic formula crept into his head only in December last year when he observed that his condoms were beginning to enjoy more patronage than the early months when he could hardly sell off the contents in a packet in two days. He now spends a large chunk of his capital on condoms which bring him a quicker and more huge profit than the other goods which attracts very unimpressively low patronage.
“A packet of Gold Circle contains 40 packs and each pack has four units in it. When I came here in March last year I remember that the demand for condoms was very low. But by December last year I began to notice that the demand for condoms was fast on the rise. I started by selling one packet in a day. Gradually, the demand increased. Sometimes people came and got disappointed because the only packet I got had been sold out. That was why I decided to have enough in the store to avoid disappointing my customers,” he explained.
A pack of condom, in most places, is sold for N30. But at Musa’s store you can get it for as low as N25 –– a price that he claimed has put him ahead of his competitors who cannot sell below the general price. “The cost price for each pack is N20, so if I sell it for N25 it means I have a profit of N5. But many of my colleagues believe that N5 is too small so they sell a pack for N30. But people come to me because my own price is cheaper. By January 2009, the demand had increased tremendously. I now began to sell at least two packets in a day, taking home N400 profit on condoms alone,” he enthused.
Interestingly, his sales have increased in recent times as the Aboki now boasts of selling more than three packets of condoms every day. His claim is evident in the outlook of his store. At the edge of a wooden bench lies a heap of packets of Gold Circle condoms while one of them is left on display at the inner wall of the kiosk. Musa believes that for him to be experiencing this kind of fortune at the time many businesses are crashing, the economic melt down may have forced many to take solace in sexual intercourse.
“I believe that it is the economic melt down that is making people, especially the married couples, to engage in sex more frequently than before. Since the crisis began, many businesses have suffered and some have lost their jobs as a result of that. For instance, a man who used to go out very early in the morning and come back late at night is now jobless and as such has more time to spend with his wife and more time to have sex. But obviously they don’t want pregnancy, so they go for condoms. Apart from this, I think generally, married couples now prefer condom to avoid mistake of unwanted pregnancies in the wake of economic crisis,” he reasoned.
But his customers are not limited to married couples. How would he then explain his single-customers’ increased patronage of his condoms in spite of the crisis? Hear him: “To be honest to you, the singles patronize me more than the married couples. I am still of the belief that the crisis is largely responsible. Most of the young men now prefer to spend a little amount of money on a prostitute than spending so much to maintain their girlfriends. Even all these yahoo boys are no longer getting as much as they used to get from their mongers because the crisis is a worldwide thing. So, there is no much to spend on their girlfriends. You know in sleeping with prostitutes, they have to use condoms.”
Gold Circle, the only United Nation-recognized brand of condoms world wide, is circulated in Nigeria by the Society for Family Health (SFH), the Federal Ministry of Health and sometimes, the United Nation funds for Population Control (UNFPA). Although it has often had to compete with a few other brands, it enjoys a high level of patronage in the Nigeria market –– an advantage generally credited to its affordability. A recent statistics released by the research unit of the Society for Family Health says it controls more than 80 percent of the market and that the figure has even increased in recent times.
A report showed that well over 180,000,000 units of Gold Circle condoms were circulated by SFH alone in 2008, in addition to those released by the other two bodies, which is often more than the amount released by their sister authorized body.
Not many were bold enough to talk about their recent sexual lives, but a married woman resident in Sahsha area appeared to be confirming Musa’s point of view by maintaining that she now enjoyed her husband in this time of crisis more than ever before. “My husband is an engineer. He used to be very busy because he had many contracts from companies. Now he receives less works from companies probably because of the economic crisis. This makes him to spend more time with me at home and make love to me,” she explained.
Asked if the increase in love-making has translated to more demand for condoms and she laughed. “You are very funny. Of course we use condoms whenever we have to make love during my ovulation period because we already have four children and we don’t want more than that. Well, it is my husband that buys the condoms and it is Gold Circle we use. I don’t know how many he buys these days but I know he now has more time to make love to me,” she said.
Written by Jibola Oyekunle.
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