years old and now in Junior Secondary, JSS III in WAPI, she makes on the
average N500 and N600 proceeds daily from the venture. She even had
Cross river state governor, Gov Ayade as one of her customers.
Vicky told Vanguard:
“I also gave the regular (daily) for N50.00 and sports newspaper for
N20.00 to those who came here to read and return the paper and still
sold the paper to those who wanted to buy.”
She said her school runs two sessions and she attends the afternoon
session, which affords her time to sell newspapers in the morning before
leaving for school.
Many prominent people live in this area, commissioners, House of
Assembly members, judges, businessmen and even the present governor of
our state before he became governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, used to buy papers
from me.”
On how she gets the papers to sell, Vicky said she wakes up at 5.30
every morning and heads to Bassey Duke Street, the newspaper
distribution point to collect the day’s papers when they arrive from
Port Harcourt and Asaba every morning and by 8.00 am, she was already at
her stand where some customers were waiting for her to arrive with the
day’s papers.
When there’s breaking news…
“If there is a breaking news, before I get here, people are waiting for
me, but some days, especially during the rainy season, because of the
bad roads, papers arrive here late, except during weekends whether bad
road or no bad road, the van drivers do manage to get here on time since
the papers are produced early,” she said.
What does she use the money for or does she hand it to her parents?
“No,” the fair-skinned girl retorted, adding that she used the money to
meet her needs in school and pay her fees, except when there was urgent
need at home and her parents had no money, then she could help out. Her
words:
“I use the money to meet my school needs, but sometimes, I help at home
when my parents ask me to, may be they have no immediate cash at that
time.”
She said she was yet to decide if she would continue being a vendor
after her education, but for now, the business was quite lucrative.