By Arret Jatta
As the month of Ramadan comes to an end, the sales of goods for Eid increase at the popular ‘wanterr’ market (a local name for auction price in Wolof).
This time around, vendors lament that the rate of CFA currency affected the prices of goods they are selling thus most of these goods come from Senegal.
Falleh Gaye, a vendor at the Serrekunda Market says it’s hard to get CFA at a good rate at this present time.
“Now to get 5000CFA, you will have to pay D550 or more but before you can get 5000CFA for just D350 or less, imagine converting that amount to CFA before purchasing goods in Senegal. The rate is really not favorable to us that is why we cannot sell the goods at a cheaper price than we are selling now,” she explained.
Falleh added that goods like fabric, shoes, and bags are not also cheap in Senegal at the moment and the rate just makes it worse.
She urged the authorities to address this issue before the TobaskiEid if not the “Wanterr” is not really going to be “Waterr”.
Mansour Sarr, a Fabric vendor at Serrekunda Market also complained saying the rate at which they get the CFA doesn’t favor them at all.
“The CFA rate now is ridiculous and we the vendors are struggling with the way the rate is going up day by day, we all know most of the goods we sell in ‘Wanterr’ market are from Senegal but with the way the CFA is going, it’s not easy at all. This year’s ‘Wanterr’ is different from the previous years and the high rate of the CFA is one of the reasons for the difference”, he lamented.
Furthermore, he said paying for the goods from Senegal is hard on them and the Customs Officers don’t make it easy for them, too, therefore prices of goods cannot be “cheap because you have to cost everything.”
Abdoulie Bah, a Forex Trader says the reason why the rate of CFA is going up is because the demand for CFA is high in the market.
“CFA’s demand is high lately and this is why the rate is going up, and when demand for something is high the price tends to go up, and the amount of Gambians clearing their goods from the Senegal ports also contributes to the reasons why the CFA rate is going high. This is because they need to change the dalasi to CFA to be able to clear their goods from the Senegal Port,” he shed more light on it.
He emphasized that the demand for CFA is higher than what is available in the market affirming that there are not many ways in which CFA comes to the Gambia.
