Sierra Leone: COVID-19 and its economic toll on women
By Ibrahim S. Bangura
Women traders in Sierra Leone have said that the outbreak of the Coronavirus has caused a hike in custom dues, transport fare and taxes on goods, thus causing fall in their volume of business and putting them out of business. They added that some of their colleagues are now on the run because they could not repay their bank loans.
Iye Koroma, Chairlady of Mafanco Women Traders Association, who deals in slippers, cooling containers and other cooking utensils in Freetown, says that the increase in custom dues means that sometimes they could not even break even in their cost benefit analysis after sales.
Koroma furthered that previously they paid Le 40,000,000 as custom charge for a forty-foot container the quay, but now pay over Le 78,000,000.
According to her, before now to ship a 40ft container from China, they paid US$ 5,000, but now over US $ 11, 000.
Koroma stated that as a result of increase in import tariffs and the resultant hike in selling prices their sales have dwindled.
She added that in a bid to cut costs they started buying goods online from China, Dubai, Nigeria etc. by sending photos of goods they want and send them via WhatSapp and E-mail, and the space of weeks their good would have been delivered.
“Since trades were slow and everyday declining; no profit, we engaged ourselves in buying goods online. Thinking that things would be better for us, but we experienced the worst. Sometimes, goods which we might have paid for through online would not be the one they would bring us. We will sometimes pay for slippers but spoons would be brought for us instead. Also, our customers sometimes bring us goods that had already expired. So when those goods arrive in Sierra Leone, there would be no way for us to send them back, because all the charges required might have been paid,” she explained.
She said that to avoid all those challenges they had to stop buying goods online thus dealing in the remaining stock which they had bought.
Koroma added that cross border trade with Guinea which hitherto the outbreak of COVID-19 had been relatively favorable for them, has gone bad with goods with freight vehicles being delayed at Gbalamuya, the border crossing town in Guinea for periods of over three weeks before being allowed to enter Sierra Leone. “We used to buy goods from Guinea usually six times a month, but everything has just stopped due to ill-treatment we usually encounter with the authorities at the border. They delay our goods at border, and by the time they are allowed into Sierra Leone those that are perishable goods would have already rot,” she stressed.
Adama Jalloh, Chairlady of Leigh-Wharf, a group of female traders in the Western Area Rural District, explained that trade activities had been negatively impacted by the Coronavirus. Thereby, slowing down economic activities and causing businesses to be more difficult to finance.
She said many traders had run away from their residents because they could not pay back loans taken from the banks, thus reducing their credit worthiness and causing them not to be able to access loans from the banks anymore. “Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, we have had no access to loans. The financial institutions usually tell us that traders had not been paying back their monies, instead they would run away from their residents when they are asked to pay.”
She mentioned that there is no project to teach them entrepreneurial skills; she also added that they lack peer support and access to markets and capital.
She emphasized that that if business empowerment trainings and schemes were provided for them, they would use the opportunities to acquire the much needed expertise to strengthen their organizations. She added that since the outbreak of the virus, they have not been able to tap into the international market.
Jalloh said they usually trade in pepper, onion, sugar, rice; groundnut, vegetables and many more.
She further explained that the closure of ‘Lumas’ is another dimension to the numerous problems which had plagued their businesses since COVID-19, “We were buying goods from Bamoi Luma … but since it is closed by the government as a result of the Corona Virus, prices of goods have increased. I usually trade in pepper, beans and other country foods. Before now I used to take care of my family but it is hard now to sustain them. We used to buy a bag of dried pepper for Le 85,000 which we are now buying at Le 1, 800, 000. We also used to buy a bag of Beans at Le 750,000 and that has also increased to Le 1,100,000 a bag.”
She added that they had not been fortunate to benefit from the moneys which the government is offering to business women recently.
Umaru Samai, the project Officer of Information, Education and Communication of the National Commission for Social Action (NaCSA) said that, NaCSA is presently supporting 39 thousand with grants of Le 1, 390,000 beneficiaries from funds to the tune of 4.6 million euro through the European Union.
He said, “The beneficiaries are those whose services were struck by the outbreak of the corona virus like: Petty traders, the Tourism industry Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS), and vulnerable informal sector workers including those working in micro and small enterprises and low paid workers in the service sector in the capital of Freetown with the aim of mitigating the economic impact of COVID-19.”
He stated that each beneficiary is entitled Le 1,309,000 and added that the beneficiaries in Freetown had been verified across various Markets and street settlements.
Samai added: “NaCSA in consultation with the Trader’s Council allocated the Petty Traders 23, 400 beneficiaries and the payment commenced on Saturday May 8, 2021 through Rokel Commercial Bank (RCB).”
Note:
This story is produced under the auspices of Journalist for Human Right (JHR) and the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists (SLAJ) 2021 human rights fellowship program.
