By Adama Makasuba
Fish business has been massively hit since coronavirus emerged in the country last year, causing huge loss of money in the sector as dozens of small-scale businesses were almost grounded.
Women in the sector within the Greater Banjul have been lamenting on how the pandemic has badly disrupted the growth of their businesses, pushing them in serious debt.
They are now calling on the government for support in order to recover their businesses from the scar of the pandemic. They want to payback their acquired loans in order to effectively start business proper.
Haddy Cham who sells fish in the Serrekunda market, The Gambia’s commercial hub, explained “before I used to sell filled basket of fish but now, I struggled to sell a quarter of a basket of fish because if people who supposed to buy don’t have money they will not bother to come and buy from us.”
Also, Lala Gassama another fish seller said Covid-19 has crippled the fish business “since in the morning I am here selling but no customer has come to buy a fish, and is in this business I depend to pay school fees and help family.”
She called for support from The Gambia government to help women in the business sector in order to save them from crumbling.
A statistic from The Gambia government said it is estimated that over 200,000 people are directly or indirectly dependent on artisanal fisheries for their livelihoods including fish buyers, processors, boat builders, fuel wood collectors, and other ancillary activities.
According to the statistics, the artisanal sector is the major supplier of fish as food for the Gambian populace and raw material for commercial fish processing plants. The sector provides direct employment to 1,410 head fishermen and 4,694 assistant fishermen.
Meanwhile, president of Banjul beach fish smokers, Ajaratou Mai Sonko, laments that their businesses were seriously disrupted because middlemen from Senegal are no more coming to buy from them as borders were closed.
“The business is very poor and bad now. There is a serious scarcity of fish because all the fishermen have gone home,” she said.
Ms Sonko, who has been supporting her family in the business, says they encounter lots of challenges now because they had to travel to Casamance to buy fish and transport it back for resale.
“Fish is so expensive now because there is still scarcity of fish,” she said, adding that “There is a huge loss in profit for us since the start of the coronavirus.”
She pleads to the government to “give us a supporting hand to help our businesses to recover from the impact of the coronavirus. We are financially bankrupt.”
Jainaba Sallah, also a fish seller disclosed that she is indebted as her business nearly crumbled.
“I have children to feed and school fees to pay from this business and since the start of the Covid-19, I have almost lost D75,000 in profit because I cannot leave my family to go hungry. I am indebted and I am finding it so hard to pay back my debt,” Ms Sallah says.
Ramou Cham: “We have not received any relief package from the government and we have written to the state for help and they promised us, but nothing seen yet.”
Abdou Kolley, an economist: “The country’s artisanal being largely dominated by women, targeted support would have been challenging because they largely operate as individuals.
“With the restrictions that came with the COVID-19 pandemic, this has affected business activity of these women, reducing their incomes and affecting their livelihoods.”
Meanwhile, a study conducted by Isodal, a Ghana-based firm on Covid-19 impact on the natural resources sector in five English-speaking West African countries including The Gambia, shows that the fisheries sector is among the most badly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Lamin Nyabally, a consultant for the firm said “Those in the fish production and marketing were badly affected in terms of opportunities, sales, distributions, income and profitability.”
He linked the challenges of coronavirus measures like hand washing, wearing of mask and social distancing to have had “a great impediment to movement.”