By: Nyima Sillah
The President Barrow-led administration has been asked to tackle the high cost of staple food amid growing concern over recent shortage of bread in the country.
The call come weeks after President Barrow’s landslide victory which is being disputed by the nation’s main opposition United Democratic Party at the Supreme Court in Banjul citing election fraud.
However, Barrow had promised in his victory speech to make The Gambia better for Gambians and promised to tackle high cost of food by investing in agricultural production.
Speaking to The Voice exclusively, Alassan Njie, expressed concern over cost of food in the country as one of the main problems while urged the government to help address the matter urgently.
“Some of these local bakeries don’t even pay tax, they don’t prepare bread in a hygiene environment but whenever the price of flour goes up, they don’t wait for the government to release statements instead they do what they think is right which ends up affecting everyone,” he said.
“The government should be strict with their decision,” saying despite that it is been stated the Ministry of Trade press release that all prices should remain the same, yet there is no guarantee that all bakery suppliers will adhere,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Awa Kah urged Ministry of Trade to setup a monitoring agent to go around because they don’t want a similar issue like transport union. Besides she said, the elections have not even moved an inch and issues start to rise up.
“The suppliers have not been giving them normal supplies compared to the previous weeks, a clear sign that it is not yet solved and they can increase the price at any moment or reduce the size of bread out of their own will,” she added.
Habibatou Jallow, a petty trader said: “I am devastated because I sell different types of stews in the morning and all my customers are used to the D7 price. But I am afraid that the price might increase if the governments do not put strict measure that will sustain the issue. We all know that the issue of price regulation has become a huge problem as we can all see that any price that goes up never come down no matter how government intervenes.”