Food vendors and shuttle drivers are making brisk businesses at the ongoing post University Tertiary Matriculation Examination (post-UTME) holding at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).
Newsmen reports that the UNN computer based screening for 2020/2021 session started on Jan. 18 and is expected to end on Jan. 26.
In separate interviews with Newsmen in Nsukka on Wednesday, some food vendors and UNN shuttle bus drivers said they were having a field day because of thousands of candidates participating in the examination.
Mrs Regina Ozioko, who sells food, said since the screening started on Monday, she had been making quick sales.
“On Monday and Tuesday I sold two big coolers of rice before 3.pm.
“Many candidates who came for the exam, come to the Freedom Square where the university provided for food sellers and other people who are selling other things including stationery.
“I am happy because my business is moving very well and I am making profit. I have not made such sales since COVID-19 pandemic started a year ago,” she said.
Mr George Nduka, who sells confectionary, said he would like the ongoing screening in UNN to last longer so that he could recoup the losses made during the lockdown caused by Coronavirus.
“Many candidates and visitors have been coming to the Freedom Square to buy snacks.
A sachet water seller and secondary school student, Dennis Urama, said he had sold no fewer than 10 bags of water within two days as against less than two bags he sold under normal circumstances.
“I engaged in the business to raise some money for my school but I would go back to school when the screening end next week,” he said.
Mr Samuel Ugwu, a UNN Shuttle Bus Driver, that ply from Nsukka Old Park to UNN campus, said since the exam started, he had been busy.
Ugwu said he had been conveying candidates and their parents from Nsukka old park to UNN campus for the examination adding that he had been making a lot of money.
He however, expressed delight that students were back to school since the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) suspended its nine month old strike.
According to him, I believe that life would return to normal in the university.