A group of petty traders in Waterloo Tombo market are not happy over the slow sales now.

Mamud Sesay sells green tea produced by China in a little board stall.

He talks to Africa 24 journalist, Hassan Conteh, on the issue of the drought in sales these days.

“The selling gets stiff now than before,” he remarked.

The green tea or ataya tea ( local name for it) is common in most parts in Waterloo.

It is where youth keep time, most times for leisure discussions.

Mamud says when he sells a day, he saves up the proceeds to some local finance keepers (osusu guys.)

But someday, he says, he would find it difficult to get a profit of Le 40 for saving.

He has to feed his family out of the small business he is doing.

Four of his children are going to school.

One of his hardworking wives had long abandoned him for another man.

He is now left to battle with life challenges with his children and two wives. He is not doing fine with his new wives, either.

Sesay, who has been into the tea business since 2014 or so, hasn’t any other business choice than the ataya he is selling.

“Most people I am from another popular tribe who sells this green tea only but I am not,” he said.

He said he learn the art of doing the green tea business when his previous business got tougher for him then.

“I changed my earlier business to this.”

And, at first, he admitted, it was pretty hard for me to cope.

“When I started boiling the ataya I had a big challenge on how best to boil it for customers.”

“I had to get it approved of its taste by a woman who loved buying my ataya every day. It was she who gave me the courage to push on.”

‘Your ataya is nice now,’ she once told him.

Since that women uttered that word to him pushed on and on.

Waterloo is a very big place for business where a lot of petty traders both males, and females and children are having their smaller businesses to sell to people.

They sell in order to beat down poverty which is so common among people in Sierra Leone.

Everywhere you go you will see people would put up large or small businesses to sell for a living.

But the inflation on goods and items and the falling currency of the Leones is beating them hard.

And so the economic effects occur on different ways.

While there are low sales among sellers, buyers also grumble over higher prices on commodities charged by business people.

Those who work or sell or engage in other means to get money would say money is sort of or hard to come by.

This has ripple effects on sales in Waterloo to petty traders like Sheikh Mamud Sesay and traders like him all over Sierra Leone.