LIBERIA – The George Weah government continues to play politics with Liberia’s “bread and butter” issues to the extent that the country’s staple rice is nearly out of stock in the country.
The Liberian government is said to owe major rice importers millions of dollars and is not making a meaningful effort to pay as a result, a lot of importers have resulted to stop importing rice.
The government had claimed it gave the major rice importers over US$14 Million in subsidy about a year ago, yet the very government has not been able to publicly state which of the importers actually benefited from the President’s gesture.
The biggest rice importer K and K, said it was halting Importation until the government pays it almost US$4 Million it was owed; and just this morning it had to take the intervention of Police to avert a potential stampede at Fouani Warehouse at the Freeport of Monrovia where rice distributors scrambled for the product.
Customers who had gone to buy rice said it is difficult to get the product in the country, a situation that could cause trouble for the country.
There has been uneasy calm amongst Liberians on how a few people are running the state of affairs in the country. They say the country’s economy is in a nosedive.
The morale of Liberians has considerably dropped since President Ellen Johnson left power and Weah took charge.
The CDC government insists it’s doing everything to improve the country’s economy, but some citizens spoken to by Smart News think otherwise; as essential commodities seem to be running short on the local market, and prices of other merchandise continued to skyrocket.
It can be recalled that a Smart News investigation a few weeks ago showed that leading rice importers were reluctant to bring in a new consignment of rice because of the government’s alleged failure to live up to an agreement in which it promised to give subsidies to rice importers.
The importers are demanding their share of the US$14 Million the government claimed to have given as a subsidy.
Sources have informed Smart News that K and K, the largest rice importer in the country is not willing to bring in a new consignment of the nation’s staple food.
Liberia consumes about 900,000 bags of rice every month, and market analysts say it is highly likely that the commodity could run out in a few days.
On the other hand, petroleum has been another contending issue in the country in recent times-from scarcity to price hikes.
