Muhammed Njie, Managing Director of the National Food Security Processing and Marketing Corporation, formerly Gambia Groundnut Corporation (GGC) has defended the government price on fertilizer.
“It is important for me to come forward and clarify because I have seen many people using this as a political tool to score political points and that is wrong. We all know what is happening in the world right now. We had a meeting recently in Genoi where we invited all the Governors, Chiefs, Seccos Managers and the prominent farmers in the country and explained to them the situation of what is happening,” he said.
In his words, “if you remember a few months ago there was this big vessel that got stuck at the Swiss Canal. That was the route used by many vessels to supply containers and other materials to other countries but when that happened, it affected the whole world. After that, the pandemic also came which led to the increment in prices. Unfortunately, also, the war in Ukraine worsens the situation and you know the Gambia doesn’t manufacture fertilizer, even the farmers know NPK is not one product. And those raw materials are not made by one country and some parts of it are coming from Russia. So, the company that manufactures the fertilizer will have to buy those raw materials from those countries and mix them.”
He went on in his explanation “so, Russia has been the largest producer of fertilizer you cannot buy fertilizer from them because if you send money the Banks will return your money because they are under sanctioned so that had created a lot of pressure. Yesterday, I was watching CNN, Nigeria’s Finance Minister said Nigeria is struggling to manufacture fertilizer because they don’t have the raw materials.”
In the Gambia, “When we compared our price with the regional prices, we realize that we have the cheapest price because our neighbouring country Senegal is selling their fertilizer at D3000 plus and the Gambia was also supposed to sell it for D3000 plus but the government subsidies up to D1000 or more.
“We know it is hard but it doesn’t only affect the Gambia but the whole world. It is not the wish of the government to sell expensive fertilizer to our farmers is just that we don’t have a choice.
“The government is doing everything humanly possible to ensure that they solve the problem in one way or the other,” he added.