By Hassan I. Conteh
Prices on food commodities increase every single day in market places in Sierra Leone.
Sierra Leoneans find it now very hard to make a living.
As inflation hits hard on foodstuffs, it means people don’t meet their regular meals on a daily basis.
Every day consumers become stressful over increasing prices of food in markets.
“All thing don dear now ,” said a consumer, meaning, everything is expensive nowadays.
As the bad economy shows on smaller business scale, petty traders don’t get much profits.
The proceeds they earn from selling almost go to business agents who sell them goods in larger quantities.
“We don’t make much profits when we buy pepper and palm oil from those who bring them from upcountry” explains Kadia, a trader in Waterloo.
Kadia recently buys a jerry can of red palm oil Le 600 ( an equivalent of USD $ 36 ). Sierra Leone’s staple food, rice, is sold at Le 480.
A price for a pint of palm oil has lately gone up to Le 13 making it too expensive for consumers to purchase for a day’s cooking.
Palm oil sellers like Kadia in Waterloo-Tombo market look apparently worried as a price on a gallon of palm oil rises up like flour yeast on weekly basis.
This status of affairs for poor Sierra Leoneans affects their livelihoods.
Those who work in offices couldn’t match up to the economic downturn.
Likewise, business people and peasant farmers are themselves being affected.
People are leaving countryside in drones to look for work in cities. But it is hard to get one.
The government is unable to meet citizens’ demands as jobs become a ghost thing to talk.
Sierra Leone has experienced recession since 2015 when Ebola badly hit the country.
President Julius Maada Bio is sharply blamed by Sierra Leoneans for making things worse for the nation.
Mr. Bio had said he inherited a ‘bad economy’ from his predecessor, Ernest Bai Koroma.
President Bio unlike his predecessor removed subsidy on fuel, which now results to a dire consequence on the economy.
Currently, the value of the leone, local currency, is seriously booted by the US dollar. US $ 100 now costs Le 2million.
And plans to redominate the leones by printing more new monies as advised by the bank governor boomerangs on the economy.
Now, to put food on the table is Sierra Leoneans most concern.
Wage workers, business people, students, graduates, farmers now wish to see a turn around on the grim events in Sierra Leone.
To put prices down on foodstuffs, lower the price on fuel, ensure free custom on imported goods are Sierra Leoneans most concern.
As elections approach closer, Sierra Leoneans urgently need a leader who is sincerely ready to work on those ‘highten needs.’