Africa-Press – Gambia. Amid mounting public frustration over the high cost of food and essential goods, Gambia’s Minister of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, insisted this week that food prices in the country have stabilized — and could even decline in the coming weeks.
Speaking in an interview with West Coast Radio, Dr. Ceesay acknowledged concerns among citizens but rejected claims that prices were continuing to rise uncontrollably.
“Government has intervened,” he said. “What we know is that the price of food has stabilized in this country. I am not saying it has gone down; we have not seen any skyrocketing of prices going up.”
The minister cited rice, one of the country’s staple foods, as an example. He noted that its price has remained relatively constant in recent months and predicted a reduction in the near future.
“When it comes to the price of a bag of rice, it has not gone up significantly over the past couple of months. It is being stabilized, and in fact now, what we are seeing is that, I don’t have details, but in fact we will see the price of rice going down significantly very soon,” he said.
He attributed this anticipated decrease to government-led interventions, including support programs for food importers and a broader effort to cushion citizens against inflationary pressures.
“I know that the government has intervened in supporting the sector; currently there is a program by the ministry of trade whereby they give support to traders to bring in rice, and the government will also bring rice very soon,” he said.
Dr. Ceesay also pointed to the government’s role in reducing inflation, which he said had dropped from 17 percent to between 8 and 9 percent in recent months.
“The fact is that the price has stabilized; we have not seen any skyrocketing. Skyrocketing means every day you will see the price of rice go up, That is not happening. The government has succeeded in bringing down inflation from 17% a couple of months ago to almost 8-9% now. So I think on that front, the government is doing well,” he said.
Still, the minister acknowledged that external factors, including global supply chain disruptions, continue to exert pressure on food prices. Since The Gambia relies heavily on imported goods, he said, international logistics costs inevitably influence local prices
“Remember also, these are supply chain issues; we don’t produce these things; we buy them from outside, and then the cost of logistics goes up, and the cost of commodities goes up. We buy the inflation back to the country.”
To help mitigate these effects, Dr. Ceesay said the government has implemented tax relief measures on imported food items.
“That is why the government is ensuring that these things, you don’t pay duty for them. The government is subsidizing that to make sure that it’s duty-free; you don’t pay anything when it comes in, so that we stabilize. If that support wasn’t given, it would have been a totally different story,” he said.
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