PHOTO: Here is the abandoned market building
By Charles Gbayor, maorethason1997@gmail.com
PLEEBO, Liberia- A new market building constructed along the
Liberian-Ivorian (Pedebo) border in the southeastern Maryland County to promote cross-border trade, has been abandoned.
It is located about 22 kilometers east of the Maryland capital, Harper.
The market was constructed under the African Development Bank (AfDB)-funded “Mano River Union Road Transport Program” along with hand pump and toilet facilities at the cost of nearly 159 thousand US dollars (US$158,669.17).
This project, which is now seen as a “white elephant” project, was completed and dedicated on May 30, and officially opened to traders of both countries on July 24, 2019.
The project was implemented by Liberia’s Ministry of Public Works on behalf of the government of Liberia to promote cross-border trade between Liberia and neighboring Ivory Coast.
When the Superintended of the Maryland County branch of the Liberia Marketing Association (LMA), Abraham C. Wilson was quizzed and contacted about the dormancy of the market, he gave two main reasons for the abandonment of the market.
He named the lack of willingness for their Ivorian counterparts to rotate days for both sides of the border; and the inability of those living in surrounding communities to grow the necessary produce to attract buyers.
“Our people who live around the border for which the market was built do not actually have produce to take to the market for people leaving from Pleebo, Harper and other areas to buy. Imagine, if you were selling a T-shirt LD200 and take it to the border for the same price, you will expecting to buy cassava, plantain, pepper and other items which when you sell will cover your transportation expenses, but the crops are not there,” LMA Maryland Branch Superintendent Wilson said.
According to him, Maryland County Superintendent George Prowd, has on three different occasions led delegations to the Ivory Coast to discuss with authorities of the Tabou Region on how they could rotate market days weekly on both sides of the border. And he said Mr. Prowd also discussed the improvement of other cross-border activities, but their efforts yielded no fruit.
“They are not willing because of the money they generate from their side every week, and our people too only produce cane juice,” he noted.
Though the LMA Maryland County Superintendent has appreciated the Liberian government for the initiative, he believes that trading together with their Ivoirian counterparts at the market will promote the level of friendship that has subsisted between citizens of both countries over the years.
“We are working along with the office of the County Superintendent and other stakeholders to come up with strategies on how the market should be operated,” he told the Liberia News Agency recently.