By Tabora Bojang
Government has finally disclosed the names of business entities facilitated by Central Bank to access hard currency to help them import essential goods’ into the country in the wake of supply chain disruptions brought on by Covid and the Ukraine – Russia war.
In November 2022, President Adama Barrow revealed that government had to help facilitate some business entities to access foreign currency to help them import goods and ensure prices of basic commodities are lowered.
The governor of the Central Bank Buah Saidy later told a news conference that over $100 million had been accessed for some importers, but declined to disclose their identities, and instead referred journalists to the Ministry of Trade, overseeing the process.
Yesterday, at the National Assembly, Trade Minister Baboucar Joof disclosed the names of the businesses while responding to Janjangbureh lawmaker Omar Jatto Jammeh.
The minister was asked to provide the Assembly with a detailed list of all businesses that ‘were selected by government to benefit from foreign currency withdrawn from Gambia’s reserves”.
Minister Joof began his response with a clarification: “The government has not selected any businesses to benefit from any foreign currency withdrawal from the country’s international reserves. What happened was that during the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent Ukraine war, prices of commodities were increasing due to global supply chain disruptions. As a net importer of food commodities, The Gambia was affected and during this period most importers also found it difficult to access forex in order to pay their suppliers due to shortages of forex in the market.
As such, some Gambian importers of essential commodities requested the Ministry of Trade to support their access to forex in order to pay their suppliers and to ensure the continued availability of essential commodities and to avoid any potential shortages. The ministry forwarded these requests to the Central Bank and requested facilitation to access forex from commercial banks or non-bank financial institutions in order for the businesses to settle their suppliers.”
Minister Joof added that all the requests that were received by his ministry were for the importation of basic commodities such as rice, sugar, oil, petroleum and electricity.
He further informed NAMs that the requests of the following businesses were forwarded to the Central Bank for facilitation: JV General Trading for the importation of rice, sugar and cooking oil, Fouta Enterprises-(rice, sugar and cooking oil), Jah Oil( petroleum products) Kepa Track Group Limited( rice, sugar, flour and cooking oil), GGC (rice), G-Farms( poultry and livestock feed) Global Properties (rice) Unique Group( rice,) Concise 360 Company Limited (sugar) GNPC ( petroleum products) LBJ and Sons Company (sugar) Quantum Net(for the purchase of 30 new buses) Orange Energy Gambia( petroleum products) Nawec (for the settlement of payments to KarPower and Senelec) and the Ministry of Health for procurement of ambulances.
Hon Omar Jammeh further asked the minister to indicate whether a public advertisement was done to ensure the public’s awareness of the process, Minister Joof argued that there was “no need for an advert” since government was not doing any procurement. “These are businesses that had issues with their suppliers and required assistance and they wrote to the ministry for support and we provided support,” Minster Joof said.
But NAM Jammeh made a swift intervention asking the minister how the funds that were meant to facilitate importation of essential goods went to businesses like Quantum Net to purchase 30 buses.
Minister Joof responded: “I cannot explain why they [Quantum Net] purchased 30 buses. What we can explain is that while the buses were heading to Banjul Quantum Net had no access to foreign currency and that would have required them to either return the buses or they would default and that would have brought credibility issues.”
In response to other concerns about the impact of these interventions on the prices of basic commodities, the minister said it has ensured the availability of goods in the country at a time when global food supply chains were disrupted. He said without this intervention there was going to be “chaos.”
Member for Kiang West Lamin Ceesay too questioned the inclusion of entities like Global Properties, known for estate developing, and how they would be venturing into food importation. In reply, the minister stated that businesses are not confined to one terrain and they can have subsidiaries.
