Traders in Bamoi, Magbema chiefdom in Kambia districthave on Thursday January 13, 2022 said that, as result of devaluation of Leones against the Guinean Franc they sometimes realize little or nothing after sales of their goods, thus affecting their businesses.
According to Sulaiman Conteh, the chairman of the market, many of their colleagues in business had left due to continuous losses they always run into.
Conteh said before now, Le1,000,000 was equivalent to Le1,500,000 GuineanFranc, but now, Le1,300,000 is 1,000,000 Guinean Franc. “And we traders are being affected by this exchange rate.” He said sometimes they won’t even get back monies spent on goods.
He said they usually buy goods in Guinea, Senegal, Guinea Bissau and Mali.
He said that as a resultof the depreciation of Leones, “We are now buying a bag of groundnut at Le 1, 500,000 which was Le 600,000. A bag of pepper has increased from Le 800, 000 to 1,500.000,” Conteh said.
He added that they had been also affected by the increase in transportation, saying that places where they used to pay Le 50,000 had increased to Le 100,000, and goods which they used to pay for Le 20,000 for has increased to Le 60,000.
He said, “In order to make a living, some of us that are without capital usually take loan from some of the financial institutions. But since Leones has been depreciated in value recently, we hardly refund those loans and as a result of pressure on us from those financial institutions, some of us decided to quit business.”
Aminata Sillah, who trades in foofoo, groundnut and palm oil, said that many of them recently almost lost their entire businesses as a result of increase in transportation by drivers. “We do not have fix price at all. Transportation was really difficult to get, and failure to get a vehicle on time to deliver our goods usually cost us a huge amount of loss, as some of us trade in perishable goods. So, we have to pay whatever amount the drivers demand from us,” Sillah said.
By Ibrahim S. Bangura