The price of a sachet of water usually sold in the country for five Liberian dollars is likely to increase due to shortage of Five Liberian dollar banknote, consumers have revealed.
Local retail dealers who spoke to this paper recently said that the situation is creating serious problem on their daily sales, as customers requesting for change cannot get the banknote, which is the lowest domination of the country’s currency.
Mrs. Hawa Thompson, who sells in the Paynesville Red Light business enclave, disclosed that most of her customers are constrained to either leave their LRD5.00 change with them or purchase at least two packets of water, which is very troubling.
She recalled that several months ago, a similar situation aroused when the bank notes disappeared from the market and retailers resulted to selling at LRD10 per sachet against their will.
For her part, Massa Massaquoi of Old Road community disclosed that she was informed by a wholesale distributor experiencing serious change problem in serving customers who troop at his distribution points to purchase the commodity.
Massa said she does not really know what is causing the continuous shortage of the local banknote (LRD5.00) which is one of the most used currencies in the country.
She added retailers would be compelled to increase price as they too are in business earn profit at the end of sales.
According to her, they buy a sachet from some distributors at the price of LRD100, LRD95.00, and LRD85.00 respectively, which is affecting their daily sales.
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When this paper contacted the Public Affairs Department at the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) for verification, a female employee of the Bank said those responsible to speak on the issue were absent.
The Weah administration printed 4 Billion Liberian dollars few months ago, all in LRD500 domination, which is the highest of the nation’s currencies that range from 5, 10, 20 50, 100 to 500 denominations.
By Emmanuel Mondaye–Editing by Jonathan Browne
