Press Release – Government Spokesman – Banjul: In the wake of worrying concerns from Gambian farmers over the deployment of digital payment platforms for the current groundnut trade season, President Adama Barrow has instructed the ministers of agriculture and finance to convene a meeting with farmers’ representatives and stakeholders to immediately address the situation.
Responding to farmers’queries during the meeting in Banjul yesterday, Agriculture Minister Demba Sabally told QGroup to increase payments services across the 95 seccos nationwide or 39 districts to ease monetary transactions for farmers. He highlighted the singular importance of farmers to the Gambian economy and agriculture as a government priority.
Finance Minister Seedy Keita assured farmers of the government’s steadfastness in providing resources to their sectors.
Alagie Ceesay, vice president of The Gambia Farmers’ Union (GFU) blamed inadequate sensitisation on the new QMoney digital payment platform, insufficient payout agents across the country and limited availability of cash at the trading centres as major problems.
Musa Sowe of the National Coordinating Organisation of Farmers in The Gambia (NACOFAG) and Abdoulie Khan of the Federation of Agricultural Cooperative Societies (FACs), echoed the challenges raised by GFU while encouraging farmers to cooperate with the government in finding lasting solutions.
Muhammed Jah, Chairman and CEO of QGroup, which partners with the National Food Security, Processing and Marketing Corporation in the groundnut trade, thanked government for the timely response to farmers’ concerns. He promised to intensify the QMoney sensitisation campaign across the country, deploy more agents and synchronise cash payments to the seccos. He said to accomplish this, the QGroup has deployed 500 people to train stakeholders across the country, purchased eight vehicles to expedite the movement of workers and ensure sufficient and timely delivery of cash.
The 2024 groundnut trade season began on 2nd December, 2024 and is scheduled to end on 2nd March, 2025 across the country. This year’s market price is pegged at D38,000 per tonne, which is significantly higher than other countries within our sub-region.
The adoption of the new payment system is premised on the government’s overall national digital transformation strategy and the resolve to prevent leakages in the transaction value chain. This is particularly true, considering that the government lost over D100 million in the previous trade seasons due to missing cash. The QMoney option aims to circumvent any further recurrence of this financial malpractice to the detriment of hard-working farmers.
To ensure transparency and a smooth-running trade season, a new task force of stakeholders headed by the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture has been established to routinely monitor the progress and viability of the new payment mechanism.
