Mr. Joof made this remark during a stakeholders consultative forum organised by Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) recently.
He said globally trade has gone up, “our transit and our imports all come in the same vessel and the transit constitutes about 60% but if our charges are higher than that of Dakar, importers and exporters will rather send their containers to Dakar.”
"We have a freight levy that is introduced by the government which was supposed to be paid by the shipping lines from the freight that they collected, it should not have charged anything local," he mentioned.
Mr. Joof, explained that freight has different components and it is calculated by distance and also the size of the cargo and the number of days it spends at the ports before discharge.
According to Joof, vessels stay for about 24 hours at the Dakar ports, and vessel spends two to three weeks at the Banjul ports before they could be offloaded. That is why our freight is much higher than Dakar and coupled with the demand in the cost of revenue, many importers have left the Banjul ports.
He indicated that they left to other ports especially Senegal whose port is freer and efficient, adding that cashew trade which Gambia used to boast of with both Bisssu and Casamance previously using Banjul port for export has also been taken over by Senegal.
Ebriama Wally, the president of clearing and forwarding agents, said the introduction of business charges against the previous procedures which allows foreign shipping agencies to act as intermediaries between the port, ships and cargo owners is affecting business and consumer prices.
"We will have a concession on how to tackle this problem in order to stop the exploitation of the business community by shipping lines operating in the Gambia at the expense of the masses," he said.
Mr. Wally said the port was only charging D 750 to handle a container but today a 20ft container costs D 70,000 and non-returnable fee of D 22, 000 or D 11, 000 which is worth questioning.
Alhagie Cherno Jallow, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AMC Trading, disclosed that before 2019, 20 ft containers of commodities from Asia were paying $1200 but now is $1800.
Mr. Jallow thus called on Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) to look for other means of generating revenue than concentrating more on importation, otherwise this issue of the high prices would continue and the port would continue to lose its competitiveness.
According to him, the trucks in the past would park all over the port premises ready for export but that is no more the case because it has now shifted to other countries,
The second-hand dealers at the Serekunda market also added their voices and called on the Barrow-led government to reduce the taxes levied on imported items.
Buying second-hand products is no longer considered taboo. In fact, recent studies show that especially young people are proud to buy second-hand products than the original ones.
This development is driven by a multitude of factors, most of them are linked to two key drivers: It’s cheaper and greener.
The Point visited second-hand sellers who expressed frustration in the trade and calls for government intervention.
Bakary Dibba, a business man at Serekumda market, said the government should stop blaming the COVID-19, Russia and Ukraine war and bring solution that would address the issue of high taxes at the Gambia Port in order to combat the high prices of basic food commodities in the country.
He further called on the government to reduce the taxes levied on them and also for landlords to reduce the rent charges.
Muhammed Drammeh said the income tax was better in the previous government than President Barrow's government.
Mr. Drammeh called on President Adama Barrow to look into the welfare of his people especially businessmen who are struggling day-to-day for survival.
According to him, when the pandemic hit, some experts worried that consumers might withdraw from buying used items for hygienic reasons. However, the numbers indicate just the opposite.
