By Omar Bah
The Gambia Milling Corporation is struggling to maintain its work force because of a drop in business caused after the company lost its monopoly as the sole dealer in flour.
A source informed The Standard that 30 staff were laid off last Friday whiles few others who are currently on leave were told not to return to work.
Speaking to The Standard yesterday on the issue, Sulayman Faye a sales clerk, said there are fears that close to 70 people could be laid off due to a massive decline in revenues.
“Since the new government decided to allow the importation of flour, the GMC faced competition from importers of flour. Our company has the capacity to produce up to 93,000 metric tonnes of flour and has employed over 100 Gambians. So, we don’t see any reason why government should allow the importation of flour and animal feeds when we have the capacity to even supply other countries,” he said.
Faye added: “We have over the years satisfied The Gambia’s growing demand for bread flour and derivative products. One example I will give is that when we start operating, bag flour was costing over D1000, but now the bag flour is costing D950,” he added.
He said countries like Senegal do not allow the importation of flour to save their locally own milling companies and the Gambia should follow suit.
