By Kafilat Akinwunmi

Vendors of recharge card vendors have condemned the use of technology to recharge mobile phones.

Many of them, who spoke with Saturday Sun, complained that the advancement in technology has done more harm than good to various recharge card sellers. Many of them believe that recharge cards may go extinct anytime soon because people instead of patronizing them, resolve to recharging their SIM cards via VTU, Momo agents and through bank accounts. Some of them also noted that the cash crunch has pushed many of their customers to learning and using their smart phones for airtime and data purchases. They also believe that the decrease in the number of people that purchase recharge card has driven many out of business.

When Saturday Sun visited some recharge card vendors’ shops in the Agege area of Lagos, many of the vendors’ sales points were empty. While waiting for customers to arrive, some of the vendors spoke to our correspondent and urged the network providers to keep printing recharge card vouchers, insisting that not everyone is technologically savvy.

One of the vendors who identified herself as Miss Beatrice Hassan sells recharge cards along Agege Motor Road. She explained how her airtime business had not been doing well, with the advancing technology affecting her sales.

She said her business has been going through tough times recently. Even at past 5pm, she said she hadn’t made sold recharge cards worth N1000. Several years back, Beatrice recalled that she would have made sales of between N20, 000 and N30, 000 by that time of the day. She said it was more worrisome as she’s a single mother who had only recently rented an apartment for herself and her daughter. In her words, it’s been a lot more difficult to gather money for other important needs including feeding.

She told our correspondent that she usually sold until late in the night to make extra money since she had no other source of income.

“The advent of mobile apps for recharge vouchers has continued to deplete the sales people like me make living from their small scale business ideas. Back in the day, whenever I needed extra money for personal use, all I had to do was stay in the shop beyond 7pm which has always worked for me because the area is popular for booming night sales. Though the gain is not much but I at least made enough before the VTU and online recharging took over sales,” she stated.

She added that she had stayed in her shop later than 8pm on many occasions since the mobile recharge began with the hope that she would make more sales but was only able to sell maximum of N1100 worth of recharge cards when she used to make about N6000 extra per day before she closes.

Mallam Isa sells provisions along the Pen Cinema area. He complained that the rate at which people buy recharge cards has reduced drastically. Isa said he used to think the lack of sales was limited to his shop, but said he got more knowledgeable that the same thing was happening to sellers in other areas. “People don’t buy many recharge cards again. I used to sell as much as N12, 000 before but I no longer sell up to N1000 per day again,” he lamented

Mrs Emmanuel, who sell both printed and mobile recharge cards, shared her experience at the time she was selling only printed recharge cards. Her words: “I asked a male customer, who used to buy at least N5000 worth of recharge cards for himself and N2000 for his girlfriend from me daily why he no longer patronises me. He said that he now recharges his phone through his bank. That was when I found out that many things they can always do in my shop can be done online. To worsen matters, the number of people that patronised me reduced, as though there was a command to stop purchasing recharge cards. Many of my customers just do it on their phones or computers nowadays and that was how I started selling airtime and data via Momo agents and bank accounts,” she said.

A young man in his early 20s, whose name is Adelani, also spoke to our correspondent on his preferences for mobile recharge. According to Adelani, “the difference between buying recharge cards and buying airtime from mobile phones is glaring because it is easier, time saving and stress-free to recharge by recharge card. I once bought 1000 recharge card on my way from Oshodi. On getting home, when I was trying to scratch the card, some of the pin peeled off and I couldn’t recover it. I had to ask a friend to recharge for me through his account to be able to subscribe and get my project done. Even my aged grandparents no longer use printed recharge cards,” he added.

Another vendor known as Mummy Olamide was lost in her own thoughts, and it was the greetings from the correspondent that brought her back to consciousness.

Looking at her, it was easy to know that she hadn’t made sales in the early hours of that day. Mummy Ola sells female wears along the Lagos Abeokuta express way. When asked what she was thinking so incessantly, she said she was tired of coming to shop every day with no hope of making enough money, especially from her recharge business. She said even though there’s little gain in the business, if enough money is used to run the recharge business it’s possible to make enough for yourself and your family.

Her words: “I began this recharge card business two months ago and invested over N50000 into it, because I had sold it before about five years ago in Abule Egba. Of course, I didn’t regret doing it then. That was why I thought of doing it again. Little did I know I was bringing debts upon myself. I haven’t even sold half of the recharge cards I bought since then and I have been coming every day.”