In a country where majority of the population keep their heads just above water through the survival means of the hoe, any deficit in rainfall would always be disastrous to more than 60% of the population that rely on agriculture as a means of survival.
Unlike the halcyon days, nowadays business has taken a downward swing, says Alieu Secka, a prominent businessman who lives in the provincial town of Bansang, Central River Region.
As a business centre, Bansang is burgeoning into a major business hub for the people of Cassamance, who have found solace living in dilapidated infrastructures in that part of the country, such as the hospital, the market, and other public centres in the town.
However, as the prospect of business remains dim in the countryside, owing to poor agricultural records and “lack of knowledge in business culture”, Mr Secka is optimistic about the good future of the town.
“I settled here some decades ago, but how business used to move and how it is moving now, are quite the opposite,” Mr Secka explained.
In those days, agriculture was booming and people of the region including those in Cassamance were well-off, especially in this time [January - April] of the year, when harvest has come to an end.”
Over the past years, residents have been passing the night without electricity. Recently, however, the lights have come back somewhat epileptically in the mountainous town. A radio station has been established that occasionally gives voice to farmers and young people.
Despite these budding developments, there are still some industrious businesswomen that are unpleased with the modus operandi set in train in that part of the country by the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC).
“When the light comes at 6pm, by 2am it’s gone again until 9am; from this hour it will stay until 2pm,” explains Nenneh Faye, a vendor of locally made ice cream.
She lamented the fact that rural Gambia is not enjoying the dividends of development in the country, citing poor linking roads, low access to electricity, and unavailability of a vibrant market, among others.
Whilst the price of bissap (Moringa for English) – a commodity used for making the cream – is skyrocketing, Nenneh is left in a catch 22 situation, because increasing the price of her product would let vendors curtail their buying power of what she produces; therefore, she is obliged to leave her charges unchanged – which is another quandary for her.
Whilst most of the moringa come from neighbouring Cassamance, some of the people in that region are unhappy because there is no fixed price or regulations in the commodity market.
“There is no stipulated and agreed price for the kilo [of a moringa]; people now and then sell at prices that suit them,” says Maimuna Sarr, an entrepreneur from Saradou in neighbouring Cassamance.
“This situation is not encouraging at all. Moreover, after we have sold our commodities, we find it uneasy to cross to our villages with the little goods we buy from The Gambia, as the Senegalese customs police continue to intercept and seize our goods [because it is from The Gambia].”
The action of the Senegalese authorities has raised some pertinent questions among the educated youth cohort in the Cassamance region.
“Upon my return from [Cheikh Anta Diop] university, I heard of what is going on in the region; I decided to ask: ‘Is Senegal respecting the Agreements the two countries have made in Banjul’?” asks Ebrima Leigh, who met with MarketPlace in Saradou.
The seizing of goods from The Gambia at the border by Senegalese customs officers, has rendered many businesspeople conducting trade across the Gambia-Senegal border bankrupt in recent years, they say.
Salif Diallo, a resident of Saradou, explains his ordeal owing to such acts: “I was heading for the weekly ‘lumo’ in Yero Foulla when I met them one morning in the year 2009. All the goods that were in my horse-cart were taken away. The worth of what was taken is to the region of twelve thousand Gambian dalasi – an amount I could not still recover.”
MarketPlace also caught up with women in the far north of the Upper River Region who did cry out against the poor linking road between Basse and Koina.
“Some of our fragile or perishable goods like tomatoes diminish in value by the time we arrive at the Basse market,” says Hajja Kumba Gumaneh, who lives in Dingiring, a bigger wealthy village off the road to Koina.
She explained further: “Some people who live not far away prefer carrying their stuffs on their heads to using the scrap vehicles that pile up on the bumpy roads every day.”
Basse, where life has continued to be lived without adequate electricity and good roads for the past decades, shows no sign of real development.
commodity prices, moreover, are becoming exorbitant in the country’s second capital city, and the cost of small and mid-size apartments has become prohibitive for the middle-class citizens, most of whom are severely hit by unemployment.
Whatever government policies are applied to address the present status quo, rural Gambia is crying out for infrastructural and socio-economic development.
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