Businessman and supporter of President Adama Barrow’s Pa Njie Girigara has lamented the dominance of the Gambia’s cement sector by a fistful of powerful businessmen, highlighting that the Barrow administration’s handling of the sector “is catastrophic.”
Mr. Njie Girigara indicated that the granting of monopoly status to Jah Oil, Salam and Gacem cement factories in the cement industry is not only illegal but an indictment of President Barrow and his government as it exposes their “lack of depth in the art” of managing a national economy.
“The manner in which they are managing the cement sector is catastrophic because you [President Barrow] handpicked two to three businesspeople to dictate to you that anyone dealing in cement should not buy cement from anywhere else and they the three will be solely responsible for bringing in cement, the rest such as retailers should all buy from them,” Mr. Njie said in an audio recording.
Pa Njie Girigara was apparently struggling to understand how President Barrow could “capitulate” to a few people to dictate the rules of engagement in the country’s cement sector.
“You [President Barrow] conceded to that which is called monopoly and monopoly is not good in a country. It’s illegal. Economic laws, particularly capitalist laws forbid monopoly,”he stated, adding: “But for you people,you condone monopoly in the cement, sugar, flour and so on and so forth. They have all been monopolized and there are other players in these sectors. Only big businesspeople are given the exclusive right to import cement. If the rest want to buy cement, they have to go to them.”
Mr. Njie wondered aloud whether President Barrow was aware that some cement retailers were denied business as a result of the cement monopoly. He explained: “They[cement factories]control and determine the price. I even heard that when others went to buy cement, they were told that there was no cement or they were flatly refused to be sold [cement]. That had really happened, Mr. President. Some had gone with their money to somewhere to buy cement but they were told in their faces that they would not be sold cement. All those things exist in the business environment of The Gambia. Is that true, Mr President? Therefore, you are not knowledgeable in business. I personally thought you had a mastery of the business sector because of your private sector background, but no. For you, it was all about renting out, buying and building compounds. That’s the limit of your knowledge.”
Earlier in his audio, Mr Njie bemoaned that the private sector dominates all the sectors of the Gambian economy such as in health and education.
“Private clinics are here and they have enough medicines, except that they are expensive. Private schools are here in sufficient numbers, except maybe they are expensive and one cannot take his/her children there. You [President Barrow] neglected all this. Either your government is ignorant of them or they go along with you to neglect them. What you know is that a few private business tycoons in their sector, controlling that sector and whoever wants to get involved in that sector, they elbow you out like making it unbearable for you until you are snuffed out of that sector,” said Njie.
According to him, the informal sector is the propellant of African economies.
“You see, Mr. President, the informal sector is the beating heart of the economies of Africa.Those not literate such as retailers at the market are the movers of the economy. They ensure no commodity goes scarce at the market. They are called hustlers. They outnumbered the formal sector. If you look at it, you have a lot of businessmen but the rich ones are countable,” he pointed out.
