AGIB disburses D1.5B to buy groundnuts from farmers -  Maketing Corporation DMD

Mr Sanyang was speaking at a press conference held at his office along the Banjul highway on Wednesday.

The press conference was held to brief the general public on the just concluded groundnut trade season of 2023/2024 to shed light on some of the issues emanated from it subsequent to the closure of the season.

“We did crop survey at the beginning of the trade season and anticipated a bumper harvest with high quality,” he said.

He indicated that his office through the Gambia government had budgeted to buy the groundnut at D25,000 per tonne but they exceeded  expectations and bought it for D36,357 per tonne from the farmers.

“Contrary to newspaper reports, that there are farmers we still owe, I want to say we have settled all our credit buying with the farmers. However, SECCOs/CMPSs with shortage are the ones that owe the farmers,” he added.

According to him, they have extended invitation to all the SECCO/CPMSs with outstanding credit transactions for the purpose of reconciliation, but only 40 SECCO/CPMSs responded to the invitation out of 95. Of the 40 that respeonded 34 were settled in full, he said, ading that the remaining 6 were not settled due to the reported shortages.

The shortage, he explained, is the results of the difference between quantities purchased and quantities delivered to deports; therefore they were not able to prove they had credits buying and the total shortage recorded was 856.135 MT.

“It is noteworthy that the majority of farmers yet to receive payment are under CPMS with shortages subsequent to undergoing reconciliation procedure with the designated reconciliation team,” he stated.

He added: “The way forward to this is to conduct thorough investigation on all shortages and take necessary actions and providing necessary support to affected regions to strengthen coordination and communication among all stakeholders involved in the groundnuts trade process.”

His office is still committed to ensuring transparency, accountability and fairness in the groundnut trade sector, he affirmed, saying: “We appreciate the cooperation of all stakeholders and assure the public of our office’s unwavering dedication to resolving any outstanding issues.