George Madi Jr calls on gov't to prioritise rice vessels at Ports

In an exclusive interview with The Point, he described rice as a basic food commodity and that it should be given a priority before any other items including cement. “Most Gambians are relying on rice for daily consumption,” he affirmed.

"Our rice vessel has been at anchorage for three weeks now .We have lodged several complaints to the management of the Ports Authority in order to remedy the situation but still now the situation remains unsolved ," he said.

He indicated “that there’s heavy congestion at the Ports, alleging they are prioritising other vessels like cement over rice vessels. “We have explained to the Ports Authority that we are constantly getting pressure from government to ensure availability of rice at affordable prices, and in order to be able achieve this, ports should prioritise the berthing of our rice vessel as we are out of stock. Unfortunately we did not get any positive response from them despite our daily complaints,” he revealed.

According to him, the company is incurring a huge demurrage bill of millions of dalasis on the rice vessel and he has no other choice but to add this extra cost on the price of the rice and this will be an extra unnecessary burden on the Gambian consumers.

"We know how important the availability and affordability of the rice to the government and to the nation is but as we speak right now, there is no rice in our stores. Our clients are bombarding us with calls asking to purchase rice and we can’t sell them because our vessel is at anchorage since three weeks unable to berth. Our consumers are unable to understand how can our company, the major rice importer in the country, be out of stock of rice which is a staple food. And  If this scenario continues, our rice suppliers will be less keen to ship rice vessels to Banjul Port, knowing that our vessel will stay weeks at Anchorage unable to berth.”

Mr. Madi urged, while appealing to the government to advise the Ports Authority to allow rice vessels to quickly offload their cargo to ensure availability and affordability of rice at all times for the well-being of the Gambian consumers.

"I am not someone who likes to do media interviews but I feel this is a very important issue which has to be addressed urgently as it is of national concern,” he said.

He finally called on his customers and consumers to be patient as they are doing everything within their limit with the relevant authorities to remedy this “unfortunate situation” so that this will not happen again in the future.