By: Ebrima KB Sonko
As the country continues to face transportation crises, many commuters, including civil servants, have expressed concerns over the high transportation fares across the country.
Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan, a qualified teacher at the Jamisa Upper and Senior Secondary School, and Alasana Jallow, a nurse by profession, moan about the high price of fares civil servants in the Gambia pay to go to their various workplaces.
Saidykhan, who commutes from Sukuta, where he stays, to Brikama, outcries the challenges he faces to reach his workplace due to drivers preferring to transit from one destination to another, to the dismay of commuters.
“It is a daily challenge for me because I struggle to reach school; I always pay three fares from sukuta to the traffic light, from the traffic light to Jambanjelly, and from Jambanjelly to Brikama. But, the most frustrating part is the recent transport increment,” Muhammed Lamin Saidykhan, a Jamisa Upper and Senior Secondary School teacher, explained.
Saidykhan also stressed that the recent transport increment had stretched him off financially.
“Well, the increment of the fair hurt me because it affected my regularity and punctuality in school; the amount of fair I paid in a month is more than the traveling allowance allocated by the ministry,” He said.
Alasana Jallow, a graduate Nurse from the American International University West Africa, told The Alkamba Times that he uses more than thousand five hundred dalasis (D1,500) the government allocated for civil servants as transportation allowances.
Jallow, who lives in Brikama and works at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital in Banjul, said he uses over four thousand dalasis monthly as transport fare.
“What the government pays as transport allowance does not correspond with the current situation. I used D180 daily as transport fare. I used the seven-seater vehicles because they are more suitable for the crazy traffic congestion. Brikama to Westfield is D50 while Westfield to Banjul is D25 and pay D30 to and from the market to my home in Brikama Gidda,” Alasana Jallow said.
