By Buba Gagigo
Yonna Enterprises, one of the leading domestic importers and suppliers of rice and other basic commodities, with Ramadan approaching and in observance of the lent session, called a press conference today at their Kanifing warehouses to announce a reduction in the price of rice at all their location throughout the Gambia.
Momodou Barrow, General Manager of Yonna Enterprises, said that they intend to make food and other basic commodities affordable for struggling families, especially for folks living in the provinces.
“There are people back home (provinces) that are really in need of these things and the cheapest possible way. So how do we ensure that we are able to address the needs of those people? This is where the Yonna Enterprise came to play. We have our own supply chain. When you order goods from our warehouse here, we have our trucking system that will take goods from here to the provinces. So, our stores there, they sell it cheap to the Communities. If you come to the Forex Bureau to take money to buy rice, then you don’t have a reason to come out to buy rice from the corner shop when you can buy the same rice cheaply. And this is very good quality rice,” he said.
He says it’s the first time they are trying to showcase the Yonna Enterprise, but it has been in the country since 2007.
“Today, we are here to showcase Enterprise. This is the first time we are really trying to showcase the enterprise. It has been here since 2007. But it was just a corner shop. Sometimes people have to have a vision. So, this corner shop really grew to become one of the biggest local importers in the country. So, we are trying to work on that to make sure that we’ll be able to satisfy the needs of the Gambian people.
“But how do we do this? It is to introduce our own brand (Yonna), so that people can communicate with us. We are ready to take on the challenge. Gambians will have to take the front seat in terms of bringing in the food items into the country. When you look around, there are a lot of big-time players in the market. What we can do is to ensure that we also try to support those areas where those people really fail to really capture,” he said.
Fatou Cham, Head of Marketing at Yonna, added; “We will be selling the goods in all our outlets across the country. If we don’t have it at any outlet, then maybe it is not available at that particular place. In that case, our agent will direct you to a place where you can get it.”