Gambia: The Trade Season and the Lessons of the Stakeholders

There are supposed to be 96 seccos established for the purchase of groundnuts during the trade season. It is reported that each secco is to purchase 100 tonnes of groundnuts which would require the disbursement of D364,800,000 (three hundred and sixty four million and eight hundred thousand dalasi) to the seccos for the payment of the 9600 tonnes.

Foroyaa is informed that so far 500 million dalasi has been disbursed to purchase the nuts. Foroyaa is investigating the tonnage of groundnuts produced this farming season, the tonnage purchased so far and the tonnage still available to be purchased.

The key problem is access to cash after weighing at the secco. Farmers are used to getting cash after weighing their nuts. QMoney has been delivering the sum entitled to farmers to the knowledge of the farmers for collection from QMoney agents. The farmers are claiming that some of them do not have telephones and collecting money from their Qwallet in their phones has been problematic. Such information should be transmitted to the media before purchases to avoid repetition of the existing problems.

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