By Binta Jaiteh
As hardship is now an octopus in the country with skyrocketing of prices of essential commodities such as food stuffs, dealers in second- hand clothes in The Gambia have also joined the bandwagon by rapidly increasing their prices. This has landed many vulnerable Gambians in frustrated situations especially this year (2023).
Therefore, The Voice conducted a vox pop on the issue in Serekunda market, Kanifing Municipality to gauge the views of dealers in second- hand clothes.
Kebba Marong, a prominent businessman in Serekunda market who was in a frustrated mood said that it is not their wish to increase the price of their second-hand clothes but as result of the increase in price by their wholesalers. ’I have been in this business for 10 to 15 years now, in the past we used buy a bale of second- hand clothes D 8,500 but now is D 10,000 per bale because there is no price control in the country’’, he grumbled.
Mr. Marong went on to say that they are well aware of the high cost of living in the country but have no choice to put up their prices to cover the cost of the bale of used clothes, saying they have to pay school fees for their children, pay for accommodation , feeding and medication with little profit. For that, he is appealing to the government of the Gambia to do the needful as the situation is getting out of hand.
Bakary Ceesay, another trader of used clothes also shared similar frustration like his business colleague, Kebba Marong. BakaryCeesay described this 2023 as the worst year in the business sector. He also joined Kebba in calling on President Barrow to intervene and salvage the situation.
However, other business people also shared similar concerns.
