Dr. Ousman Gajigo
Recently, both the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Regional Integration (MOTIE) and Jah Oil Company released statements regarding the cement crisis facing the country. The statements are quite similar in their purported explanation for the recent cement shortage. Unfortunately, both statements provided a false explanation for a cement shortage that is completely avoidable.
One of the key issues both MOTIE and Jah Oil emphasized was purported constraints at the Banjul port. They specifically claimed that access to the port is restricted and that this supposedly delayed ships carrying cement from docking and offloading their cargo. These excuses are completely false.
The answer is simple. The government of Adama Barrow has decided to give a near-monopoly to Jah Oil for no reason other than to reward that business, even though it comes at a great cost to the whole country. The claim that Jah Oil and others had the capacity to meet local demand has been repeatedly proven false.
This is not the first time the government has given a false explanation when it comes to the problems it created in the cement market. Earlier, government officials indicated that the import duty they imposed on bagged cement was necessary to protect local cement manufacturing. This was and remains completely false. There is no cement manufacturing in The Gambia. Jah Oil and other companies simply bag cement in the country that has been manufactured abroad. Similarly, the story about the port needing dredging as an explanation for the cement shortage is false.
The country had a cement market that worked fairly well before the government interfered simply to benefit a politically connected businessman. The country always had bulk importers such as Jah Oil, GACEM, and Salam. But in addition, there were also small-scale importers that imported bagged cement from Senegal. The bagged cement imported by small-scale suppliers cost far less than bulk cement for two main reasons. Most bulk cement usually comes from outside the sub-region, which attracts additional duties as well as greater transportation costs. Bagged cement, on the other hand, comes from just across the border. That is why cement in Farafenni used to cost much less than cement in the Kombos.
The Adama Barrow government is more interested in rewarding political patrons than in improving the economic welfare of the people. Instead of thinking about the Gambian consumers and small businesses, the government callously imposed such a high duty on these small-scale importers that bring in bagged cement that it drove them out of business. If these companies were allowed to import bagged cement from Senegal, lack of dredging at the port would not have resulted in a cement crisis.
The difficulties that Gambians are facing concerning cement today – in terms of shortages and high prices – are completely avoidable. A government that cares more about national welfare would ensure competition in a critical market rather than protecting special interests. The Adama Barrow government has taken its stance: it cares more about the profitability of Jah Oil and the benefits that company provides to his political interests than the economic interests of ordinary Gambians.
