By Fatou Sillah
Women vendors at the SerreKunda Market in an interview with Kerr Fatou raised serious concerns over the ‘high’ cost of Basic commodities in The Gambia.
Fatoumatta Camara, one of the women smoked fish vendors at the SerreKunda Market attributes the high cost of fish in the Gambia to the government’s decision to ‘sell’ the River Gambia to the Chinese.
“The reason for the high cost of fish in The Gambia is because the Government decides to sell our Rivers to the Chinese Government. We use to go to the beach to buy fish but now they wrap the fish and sell it to us in the market. If we don’t have raw fish how can smoked fish be available? We can all be fed from these rivers if the Government did not sell it to the Chinese,” she said.
Fatoumatta Drammeh, also a vendor at the SerreKunda market said, the government should help and reduce the rate of the CFA Franc so that the price of the goods can go down;
“The Country is very hard. The Government should try and help reduce the exchange rate of the CFA Franc because it’s a huge challenge for us the vendors. The people dealing with the Exchange rate will reduce the rate today and adjust it tomorrow. There is no rhyme or reason to it. They are doing whatever they want to and only the Government can help us with that,” she said.
She appeals to the President to look back and help the Gambian women;
“The reason why we came to sell in the Market is to help our Families but right now we are tired. The president should look back and help the women so that we can move forward but if the government did not help us, we will all die here because of hunger,” she said.
Mariama Bojang, another vendor at the Serekunda market urge the president to help and control the price of Goods;
“The president should help and control the price of goods if not things are never going to be easy in the country,” she appeals.
Mbasey Bojang, an Okra seller at the Market said the Government should help them with land for Gardening.