Pleabo, Maryland County – Marketers in Pleabo City say they are struggling to keep their businesses afloat due to increasing transportation fare and the challenge of moving goods, which is created by the deplorable condition of feeder roads.
Many female marketers travel to rural towns to purchase farm produce but moving these commodities to major cities in Maryland County is a daunting challenge.
A group of local female marketers at Pleebo general market on August 17 told a LocalVoicesLiberia reporter based in the county that improving these feeder roads in the county would alleviate the constraints.
Sarah Gelogeor, a palm nut seller, said marketers like her pay ‘a very high transportation” fare to get their commodities to the city.
Marketers in Pleabo say they are struggling to accumulate profits due to increasing transportation fares
“The harmful part of local businesses is that the little money we can take from our husbands or credit from people to do business, drivers don’t care if we are losing,” she said.
“They charged us money that we don’t even put in the business, looking at the condition of us, we are selling in the rain and sun just to make life.”
She said 65% of the profits they raised from sales go towards transportation fares.
Sarah said the situation in the county is similar to what’s happening in other counties across Liberia where bad roads continue to affect locals who heavily rely on farming and retail of farm produce as a source of livelihood.
Many roads in Southeastern Liberia including Maryland County are impassable mainly during the rainy season
The situation is a total neglect of the sustainable development goals of Liberia, she said, while calling on the government through the county authorities to rehabilitate feeder roads in the county.
Another marketer, Betty Wilsner, added, “Liberia can be developed only if central government find interest in promoting agriculture in the country”.
She said, when given more attention, agriculture could help Liberians focus on achieving success for the country.
Alpha Daffae Senkpeni is a multi-media journalist and fact checker with over 18 years’ experience. Senkpeni is the Director and Senior Editor of Local Voices Liberia (LVL) – a network that operates Liberia’s major independent fact checking desk. LVL has implemented several media development projects funded by USAID and the European Union. Since 2021, he has led the organization’s implementation of fact checking projects including fact checking workshops for journalists, media literacy programs, and community forums – all geared toward countering disinformation and expanding the culture of fact checking.
Senkpeni holds a law degree from the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law and a BSc in Mass Communications from the University of Liberia. He’s also an alumnus of the Radio Netherlands Training Center (RNTC) with a certificate in Digital Content to Counter Disinformation. He has also attended several fact checking trainings.
