By Lamin Fatty & Assan Bah
The trade season in rural Gambia has slowed down amid challenges of farmers cashing out their payments and credit buying taking place in some instances.
The Deputy Director of the National Food Security Processing and Marketing Corporation (better known as GGC) has told Foroyaa that they and the Federation of Cooperatives are currently engaged in a reconciliation exercise to know whether what is purchased at the seccos is the same as what is delivered at their depots. The exercise is expected to be completed by the 14th or 15th January after which purchases will resume.
When asked whether trade in groundnuts has been suspended, he declined to accept such description.
As for the credit buying which is taking place at some seccos he pointed out they are not asking farmers to either keep their nuts at home or take them to the seccos.
He emphasized the need for the exercise as they do not want what happened last year to recur when D40 million was lost in the process of the trade.
He also informed Foroyaa that total purchases so far amounted to 500 million dalasi.
Meanwhile, farmers in rural Gambia continue to bemoan their difficulties in cashing out their monies after selling their groundnuts at Seccos.
As Foroyaa continues to monitor the groundnut trade season across the country, many farmers who spoke to this medium still bemoan their challenges when it comes to cashing out their monies.
Mamadou Bah, a groundnut farmer from Wassu village in CRR North, said he sold his groundnuts at the Wassu Secco, but he still finds it difficult to get his money which was sent to him on his phone through Qmoney.
“I have over three hundred thousand dalasi (D300,000) in my phone after selling my groundnuts at the Wassu Secco a week ago, but I still cannot cash out my money,” Mr. Bah said. He said he travelled several times from Wassu to Basse and cannot cash out his money. He said he then travelled to Farafenni where he was able to cash out fifty thousand dalasi (D50,000) only; that in Farafeni, he found other farmers who came from the Southern part of the Gambia like Fulladou; that most of these people said they spent two days in Farafeni before cashing out their monies.
Mr. Bah told foroyaa that he spent nearly two thousand dalasi (D2,000) for his trips to Basse and Farafenni for his fares, food and other expenses.
“Out of over three hundred thousand dalasi in my Qmoney Wallet, I was able to cash out only fifty thousand dalasi, at a time when I need more than this amount to take care of my immediate needs to no avail. I still have over two hundred and fifty thousand dalasi in my phone, but I cannot cash it out because in Farafenni, they told me that they do not have such an amount of cash with them,” he said.
Samba Sinyan, the Secco president in Sami Karantaba when contacted said still now, farmers are encountering this cashing out problem after selling their groundnuts.
“Many farmers keep on calling me, saying that they cannot get their money and most of them travel from Sami to Basse to cash out the funds. But even in Basse, some of them have to spend the whole day in the queue before they can access their monies,” he said.
Alieu Leigh, the Secco president of Sami Pachonki village also reiterated similar remarks and said farmers travel from Sami to Basse, just to cash out two thousand dalasi. He said most of these farmers complain that this is a complete waste of their meagre resources, and said many of them are now waiting to be paid by Qmoney agents at the Secco. He said some farmers have also threatened to withdraw their groundnuts from his Secco.
Ebou Joof of Fass Omar Saho, said “We have taken our groundnut to the secco, but there is no money there. Everything is at stand still. Things are not going normal for us. They paid some weeks back, but it has since stopped.
“There is no cash. Even the online payment has stopped. I took some of my groundnuts since last week Saturday, but they have neither paid it through QMONEY nor cash. It has been a while since they have not sent our payments on our phones.
Njie also from Fass Omar Saho said, “I took some of my groundnuts to Chilla Juruku expecting that I will be paid, but it has spent there a week without them paying for it.
“Even though mobile payment has temporarily stopped in Fass Omar but Chilla are making online payments. We still have challenges in cashing out our monies. We sometimes go to Barra, or Banjul and sometimes even proceed to the QCELL Headquarters where we still face challenges before getting our money.
Mamat Sillah of Chilla Jurunku said, “One cannot tell the quantity of groundnut in our secco, because farmers from Fass Omar Saho have also brought their groundnut here expecting to be paid.
“I weighed my groundnut since Thursday, but I can’t still get paid through my QMONEY account. The agent came here once and he spent here less than 2 hours. I once met him in Kuntaya, but that was the last time I saw him. There is no money at the moment and weighing has stopped at the secco.
The secco president of Fass was called, but he declined making comments and asked us to reach out to GGC.
