Despite the introduction of the Gambia government’s protectionist measures to ostensibly boost local cement production, a relatively fewer customers are now gravitating towards the Salam cement brand.
The brand is reportedly growing unpopular among customers due to quality issues.
Cement traders, who spoke to JollofNews, explained that the Salam cement has now become a hardsell as customers had been turning their back to it in the past few months.
“The cement shortage is compounded by the fact that many of our clients have lost faith in the Salam cement brand. They often complain that the quality of Salam cement saw a massive drop and could not be depended on for certain construction works,” cement dealer Alagie Khan explained to this reporter at his store in Jimpex.
“Our customers are not that excited to buy Salam cement as compared to other brands because they say the quality had been compromised. That’s their opinion and I can’t say anything about that,” cement trader Amadou Camara, explained to this medium.
Many cement dealers, who spoke to JollofNews, said the Salam brand has now become hard to sell.
Salam cement company did not reply to our request for clarification.
The 500% tariff that the Gambia government imposed on a bag of imported cement sometime last year has been triggering cement shortages and price instability across the land.
Dozens of vehicles were recently on long queues at Jah Oil cement re-bagging factory in Brikama as the outfit struggled to meet mounting demands.
There continues to be calls on the Gambia government to reconsider the ramifications of its cement tariff policy on the wider Gambian population.
