Marketers in Maryland County decry bad roads
A cross-section of marketers in Maryland County, southeast Liberia attributes the hike in commodity prices in the region to deplorable road condition.Speaking to this paper, Judie Moore, a marketer in Pleebo General Market laments that due to the bad road condition, life has become very difficult for them.
She says one of the factors contributing to the hardship is the exchange rate between the Liberian Dollar and the United States Dollar, currently at 135 to 138LRD to US$1.00.
She notes that because the exchange rate is not stable, prices are unpredictable on a daily basis.She also explains that shopkeepers in the county are responsible for marketers not getting profits from their business because the very shop owners are also in retailing at cheaper prices.
“They don’t sell rice by cup but by kilo, which contains one and half Salmon cup”, Madam Moore adds.Frank Wah, proprietor of Frank Wah Incorporated, says though they sell goods to marketers at high price, the bad road condition contributes constant increase in transportation fares coupled with fluctuation in the exchange rate.
The Superintendent of the Liberia Marketing Association branch in Maryland County, Paul Ninpson, similarly says trade is not balance because of the current exchange.
By Bridgett Milton-Editing by Jonathan Browne
