Traders in Raja County in Western Bahr el Ghazal State have attributed rising commodity prices there to dollar rate fluctuations and the dilapidated road connecting the county to the state capital, Wau.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj Tuesday, some of the traders said they encounter heavy losses, including damages to merchandise, due to rainfall and the bad condition of the road.
Mohamed Sulieman, a Raja-based trader, said if the dollar rate drops, they will also reduce prices.
“We are importing Sugar, oil, flour and all other goods from but what is leading us to increase the prices is because the road is very bad. Secondly, the dollar is high and this is why we increased the prices,”
Sulieman said. “In these coming months, if the dollar rate reduces, we will also drop the prices. About the bad state of the road, we will compromise.”
He said it takes them 3 to 5 days to travel from Raja to Wau but that the main driver of prices is the high dollar rate.
Another trader, Ibrahim Alduma, however, said the prices of goods only increase in Raja if prices also increase in Wau, especially for sorghum and Sugar.
“When our prices increase here, it is the result of the high prices in Wau. A bag of sorghum was SSP 30,000, but when the road deteriorated, the price hit 36,000,” he explained. “A small tin of sorghum is currently SSP 2,000 a big one is 6,000. 50 Kg of sugar is SSP 38,500 up from 30,000 to 33,000 SSP recently.”
Raja County commissioner Andison Arkanjelo Musa Albino confirmed the increment in commodity prices and said it was due to the bad roads.
“The increase of prices of commodities is a general issue across the country, especially during the rainy season due to poor roads between states and counties,” Musa said. “During the dry season, a vehicle can travel from Wau to Raja within 7 to 10 hours, but now during the rainy season, the vehicles take three to four days and this is a major issue.”
“We have now introduced a policy of not taxing our traders at checkpoints in order to allow smooth flow of goods,” he added.
Commissioner Musa said the county has been working on a bad spot on the road in Deim-Subier in Ujuku Payam to improve movement.
“There is no need for a trader to increase prices and complain about the road while I am working on the road,” he castigated. “They should not complain about poor roads while I am seeing a number of commercial vehicles coming from Wau and entering Raja. They see me working on the road with women, elders, and youth.”
The commissioner said he will sit down with the trade union to discuss the matter of rising commodity prices in the county.