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The Ministry of Trade and Industry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, the Sierra Leone Police, and the Indigenous Transporters Association, has officially announced the retail prices for a 50kg bag of rice across various district headquarter towns in Sierra Leone.
This announcement follows the Ministry’s press release on 7th January 2025, which promised a nationwide disclosure of rice prices.
After thorough consultations, the Ministry has set the following prices for a 50kg bag of parboiled rice in each district:
Bo: SLL 848
Kenema: SLL 849
Kono: SLL 849
Makeni: SLL 846
Kabala: SLL 851
Portloko: SLL 849
Kailahun: SLL 853
Mattru: SLL 860
Kambia: SLL 853
Karene (Kamakwei): SLL 860
Pujehun: SLL 860
Moyamba: SLL 850
Falaba: SLL 870
Tonkolili: SLL 848
Western Urban: SLL 830
Western Rural: SLL 830
The Ministry emphasized that these prices include all associated costs from wholesale stores to retail outlets. Retailers and the general public are urged to adhere to these prices to ensure fairness and consistency across the country.
In its statement, the Ministry extended its gratitude to the Sierra Leone Police and the Indigenous Transporters Association for their cooperation and commitment to stabilizing prices and ensuring the availability of rice at reasonable rates.
So, in other to set the price, they consulted with the Ministry of Transport and Aviation, the Sierra Leone Police, and the Indigenous Transporters Association, but left out the people actually selling the rice. The government recently announced that the wholesale price of rice will be Le799 and now they have set a retail price of Le830 for Freetown, which leaves a very small profit. While the government needs to make sure consumers don’t get overcharged, the government setting prices is not the answer. With such small profits, you might actually either drive traders away, or rice starts getting smuggled to Liberia or Guinea. We need to grow more rice, not squeeze sellers. And the average Sierra Leonean is not buying rice by the bag. When sellers sell by the cup, I am sure their prices will work out to be more than what they should be charging on a 50kg basis.
This is how we FEED SALONE. Next…pamine, peppeh, yabbass…. We are now engaged in FUTURES trading: we determine the price of a commodity NOW that is to be sold in the FUTURE.
Nize
There is no good Chang on this one because the rice was two hundred New Leones