By Lamin K Saidy Fatajo
What is excessive pricing? This is when goods and services are priced higher than the competitive price.
We must all be watchdogs. The Gambia is a free market economy. I believe some of us studied economics as a subject in high school or university and one of the characteristics of this type of economy system is survival of the fittest; the stronger ones will continue to live and be successful while the weaker ones die or fail. When prices are very high no matter what, some will be able to afford it, while others won’t be able to.
Now in such economic situations, price control is not the solution as many people deem it. The solution is ‘competition’.
What is competition? It is a situation in the market in which sellers of a product or services independently strive for the patronage of buyers in order to maximize profits, sales and/or market share. (GCCPC Competition Act 2014).
Competition improves economic efficiency and thereby enhances consumer welfare.
I am writing this for us the youths to be more price-sensitive and consumer welfare-oriented. Businessmen are only interested in selling to maximize financial profit. I’m not saying when there is monopoly, which let’s say in a market, there’s only one seller of goods or services and you don’t have an option but to buy from them. In the event that there are three or more sellers in a market, try as a consumer to know how much they all sell their goods or services.
The moment there’s difference in prices, then there are competitors, if one is selling higher than the others, let’s solve the problem by not complaining, rather boycotting the seller for another seller and deliberately pass by them to let the seller know that the prices they charge are higher and as a rational consumer, you prefer to buy from a seller who sells cheaper.
No one will tell such sellers to cut down their profit to sell at the market price.
We have businessmen in the market who are always exploiting consumers, we have no control over that. It’s their business but we have control over our money and we must be price-sensitive to make rational decisions.
Recently, we have all seen how Qcell and Africell reduced their data tariffs just because Comium came with an unbelievable package to many! Without competition, we would have been dead by now. Although, it all depends on the cost and other factors of production because some charge high but they offer better quality goods and services, they can’t be blamed for that.
Gamcel were enjoying the same thing before the coming of Africell. How much was a Gamcel sim before and after Africell entered the market? Huge difference, right?
Also, the coming of Wave in the fintech industry has forced the likes of APS, Yonna, etc to do more in terms of hiring and better services.
I feel glad when I see how young people are employed to do marketing for these fintech companies, all over since Wave started; now they’re all doing well. The world is evolving and we’re in the digital era, things must change for the betterment of everyone.
In conclusion, price control is not the deal. If it happens in The Gambia, I bet essential commodities we are complaining of being expensive will end up being unavailable in the market and their scarcity will further lead to a price increment worse than what we have now.
Lamin is a master’s student in public policy at the prestigious Peking University in Beijing, China.
