By Omar Bah
The deputy managing director of the National Food Security Processing and Marketing Corporation, Lamin Sanneh, has expressed optimism that the corporation will be able to buy all the groundnuts available in the country.
The government has earmarked D500M to buy groundnuts at D38K per ton.
Speaking in a Star FM exclusive recently, Mr Sanneh said farmers should not worry about credit-buying or government failing to purchase their groundnut.
“We want to tell our farmers that we are ready to buy all their groundnuts. We have already deployed all the logistics and Agib has sent their agents to all seccos across the country and there is enough money to buy all the groundnut. I also want to assure the farmers that there will be no credit-buying this year. We are not even thinking about it. The bank is responsible for disposing of the money. We want to assure the farmers that we will continue to prioritise them,” he said.
Sanneh said even though they have a target, there is a contingency plan to ensure all the groundnuts are brought. He said the GGC has built a very strong relationship with the Gambian farmers and the corporation’s MD Momodou Njie has made it clear to all staff and senior management that when it comes to the farmers plight there is no compromise.
Deduction of kilos
Responding to complaints raised by farmers that they are being deducted two kilos when selling their groundnut, Sanneh said the kilos that are deducted are based on an agreement between the farmers and the secco presidents and GGC had little say about that.
He said the fact that the government is able to increase the price of groundnut to D38,000 within a short period is commendable, adding that the price offered by the Gambia is better than that of Senegal.
He commended the current GGC MD for his leadership qualities and foresight which plays a pivotal role in transforming the corporation.
“The GGC has been thriving significantly under him and we appreciate the manner in which he approaches everything related to work,” he said.
Processing
He said the GGC is ready to continue with the process of adding value to the groundnut.
“We are building structures to ensure that we continue adding value to our groundnut products. By 2025, we want to start all the added value activities,” he said. He said the corporation has plans to process oil.
