Farafenni-based long-standing cement trader Alagie Touray has called for the immediate dissolution of the Gambia Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (GCCPC) for its apparent inaction in the face of the Gambia government’s debilitating cement tariff policy.
The Gambia government sometime last year significantly raised the tariff on a bag of imported cement from D30 to D180 to “protect local cement producers” such as Jah Oil, Gacem and Salam cement factories.
The introduction of the 180% trade tariff has engendered and continues to cause instability in the cement market, leading to shortages, price hikes and massive devastations to livelihoods across the country.
To Alagie Touray, the strange silence and inaction of the GCCPC in the face of the cement levy-induced destruction of livelihoods, intermittent cement scarcities and price hikes as well as other volatility in the cement market are sufficient to put the GCCPC behind key and padlock.
The GCCPC is the main government agency vested with the responsibility of promoting competition and protecting consumers.
The GCCPC is mandated to ensure consumers are safeguarded from malpractice in daily business activities.
The Commission operates under three acts: The Competition Act(2007), the Consumer Protection Act(2014) and the Essential Commodities Act(2015).
For Alagie Touray, the GCCPC is not delivering on its mandate.
“The GCCPC is shirking its responsibility to safeguard consumers from the effects of the Gambia government’s burdensome D180 trade tariff on a bag of imported cement,” Touray lamented.
“GCCPC should be dissolved and, immediately because it has amply demonstrated that it is not here for consumer protection,” Touray stated in an interview with this reporter.
He believes that the GCCPC’s continued silence over the government’s “anti-competition” cement tariff has “evidently” shown its insensitivity to the sufferings of consumers and businesses, struggling under the yoke of increasing cement prices and shortages.
The hardships encountered by consumers in accessing cement and other essential items such as medicine, vegetable oil and rice led to the signing of a US$20M Murabaha financing agreement by the Gambia government to ensure their availability, accessibility and affordability.
Despite signing this agreement in February, the Gambia government insists it will not eliminate its 180% cement tariff.
JollofNews reached out to the GCCPC but an official that we spoke to there said the Commission’s CEO and communications officer are currently out of town but promised to ensure all our queries are entertained next week when the CEO and the communications officer will be back at their desks.
