The Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment has gotten a trade directorate that seeks to address rising food price.
The directorate comes as the country sees a daily sharp rise in food price and a shortage of bread which is one of the Gambia’s stable foods. Meanwhile, the high price and scarcity of the bread is making dozens of people within the Greater Banjul Area seeking for alternative food for their breakfast instead of bread.
Seedy Keita, Honorable Minister for Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment has set up a trade directorate in the Ministry. This is the first step towards addressing the issue of price hikes in The Gambia.
This step is a follow-up on one of their resolutions reached during an annual retreat held recently. The retreat created a platform for the Trade Ministry team to identify and discuss some of their many challenges and chat up reasonable recommendations to tackle the challenges.
“There has been a disruption in the supply chain and that is one reason for the rise in commodity prices, it is a global problem. But we must think of ways to address the problem,” the Minister said.
The trade directorate is one of the several ideas the Minister intends to rollout, as highlighted in his 2022 work plan.
Ebrima Sisawo, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade, encouraged all team members to fully participate in the deliberations. “This is a stock-taking opportunity of what we did in 2021 and a time to set our 2022 agenda,” he said.
The retreat gave the Ministry an opportunity to review, validate and critically look at the work plans of the Ministry its directorate, units, departments and agencies.