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Gambia: Coga to Take Up Cotton Production
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FOROYAA Newspaper (Serrekunda)
9 June 2008
Posted to the web 24 June 2008
Lamin Fatty
The Cotton Growers Association (COGA) intends to take up the responsibility of cotton production after the failure of the cotton processing company (GAMCOT). This information was revealed to this reporter in an interview with the Secretary General of the Association, Mr. Omar Sompo Ceesay, who is also the chairman of the Basse Area Council, at his office in Basse.
According to Mr. Ceesay, since the future and the sustainability of the company is already at stake, the Association felt it necessary to strategize on how best to revitalize cotton production for sustainability. He noted that The Gambia Cotton Producers have experienced the worst seasons in the history of cotton production during the period 2006/2007 cropping season and the no cotton cultivation in The Gambia in 2007/2008. He said that based on these difficult experiences, the Association decided to write to the Cotton Growers Association in Senegal soliciting their intervention to facilitate the availability of inputs.
Gamcot was formed by an agreement, on 5 June, 1992, between the Gambia Government and C.F.D.T (Compagnie Francaise pour le Developpement des Fibres textiles), a Paris based French Company for the development of textile fibres. The agreement provided for Gamcot to take over the activities of the state-owned Gambia Product Marketing Board (G.P.M.B) in the cotton sector.
According to reliable sources, there was a capital issue of 2,000,000 shares for the new company at a face value of 1 dalasi per share, 60% of which were allotted to C.F.D.T to be made in annual instalments, calculated by applying a ratio of 2.5 percent to the FOB value of any fibre and seed exported every year. Sources say that this commitment has been scrupulously honoured. To date, a total of 2262367 Dalasi has been paid to the Government. The balance of the debt therefore stands at 10,264,176 dalasi to date, or 285,116 euros (at an exchange rate of 36 Dalasi to the euro), representing 82% of the initial commitment.
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