The mayor of KM Talib Ahmed Bensouda has added his voice to chorus of voices, lamenting The Gambia’s cement situation.
“Today if you take a look at cement, it was scarce last week. There was no cement in the whole country. And when you get lucky to access it, you would spend up to D500 [per bag]. That is very painful for someone constructing a home. I wonder when will youths, who do not build their homes yet, would do so. Therefore, The Gambia has a crisis,” he bemoaned as he spoke at a recent political gathering in the CRR South.
The Gambia government sometime last year increased the trade levy on a bag of imported cement from D30 to D180. The government said the goal of its tariffs policy is to promote local cement production, though this move has since been causing issues with availability, accessibility and affordability of cement because the factories such as Jah Oil and Gacem do not produce cement locally.
