President Barrow Should Appoint A Supply Chain Czar

by Alagi Yorro Jallow
Mamudu: With the fragile health systems Africa and shortage of medical personnel, many African countries were compelled to ramp up their COVID-19 containment measures. President Adama Barrow addresses the nation in response to the coronavirus outbreak that could not have been more auspicious: a better late than never effort nonetheless. Adama Barrow provided an outline of all the measures that had been introduced so far by the Gambia government to stem the tide of COVID-19. Barrow also announced additional measures to protect livelihoods, businesses, and the Gambian economy. There were many grey areas in the President’s speech, but it was apparent that the Government was going through a learning curve. How, for example, would Gambians access the cash transfers that were promised?
Mamudu: We are looking at our solutions to COVID-19 that have worked in a few other places. It is not clear what the Gambia government COVID-19 stimulus is working here, and do we embark on creating fresh challenges. The Government must be able to come up for a breather and do an honest review. Do not force solutions by violent enforcement when you did not provide enough palliatives. You will get a violent pushback, exacerbating the situation. A solution must be relevant to its environment, and it must not end up making the problem worse or being worse than the problem.
Adama Barrow, we need leadership and enthusiasm through this coronavirus outbreak and “rally the republic” and appoint a COVID-19 Supply Food Chain Czar, a pivotal figure to steer the Gambia out of this doldrums turning the crisis into opportunity. Here is an example; some of the palliative care measures and relief has taken by various African countries to cushion citizens from the adverse effects of COVID-19 pandemic.
GUINEA
-No payment of rent by citizens until December 2020
-Government to cover water and electricity bills for the next three months
-Free public transport for the next three months
-Free pharmaceutical products and necessities
GHANA
-Government to cover all water bills for three months
-Health workers treating COVID-19 patients to receive 50% additional salary plus allowances
-All health workers to be exempted from paying tax for three months
RWANDA
-Door-to-door distribution of food
-Provision of free water and electricity to its citizens
-Provision of free medical supplies
BOTSWANA
-A $168 million relief fund to assist businesses to pay workers’ salaries so that none gets laid off.
UGANDA
-No payment of rent till further notice
-Distribution of food to the vulnerable.
Mamudu: If you want to shut down an economy to fight an epidemic without driving hundreds of thousands of people and businesses into bankruptcy, President Barrow, the Government needs to help with stimulus packages and palliative care. The coronavirus response deal will get a lot of money and food, but it will soothe only a few months of financial pain.
Taken together, those measures form a novel, temporary expansion of the Government’s role in the economy: It will be substantially supporting relief to Gambians who do not work, and hundreds of businesses shut down even if they have no customers, to slow the spread of the pandemic. Its cost is more than double the roughly in the millions stimulus package to ease the hardships. However, it still may not be large enough, given the enormous economic challenge the Gambia faces today’s support with our social investment programs.
Mamudu: No country can afford the full impact of a sustained restriction of movement on its economy. There are significant difficulties experienced, especially by those who earn a daily wage, such as traders, dayworkers, artisans, and manual workers. For this group, their sustenance depends on their ability to go out. Their livelihoods depend on them mingling with others and about seeking work. However, despite these realities, we must not change the restrictions. The deserving need urgent palliative measures such as food distribution, cash transfers, and loan repayment waivers to ease the pains of our restrictive policies during this difficult time. These palliatives must be sustained with a social-register be expanded from households to households in these difficult times.