By Hou Akot Hou
The governor of Northern Bahr El Ghazal state, Tong Aken Ngor has constituted a committee comprising of 5 members that would take charge of selling the sorghums bought from Sudan in a subsidized price to the citizens as hunger bites amid economic hardship.
Governor Ngor told media, Tuesday that he formed this committee to “oversee” the sale of sacks of sorghums procured by the state not to be plundered by unscrupulous people who sell at price locals couldn’t afford.
“Our people are suffering from hunger and we are mindful of doing a significant intervention as government,” the governor said noting “I have visited the market of late to assess the prices and saw that the prices are still soaring and skyrocketing. So that is why I formed this committee to sell the sorghum.”
Ngor said the first consignment of sacks of sorghum being sold are 500 sacks being launched in Aweil town and Aweil South County on Tuesday.
He stated that after having assessed the prices in the market, they decided to sell 3.7 Kilos of sorghum locally known as ‘Malowa’ at 1,000 SSP which sales at 2,500 SSP in current market rate.
“More convoys will come from Sudan with Dura (sorghum grains). Some arrived yesterday and others are being loaded as there is no insecurity on the road from Sudan. Before the rain falls the counties will receive the convoy of foods which will be sold by the government in affordable price,” he elaborated.
The committee which is overseeing the sale of the sorghum is being headed by the state Minister of Finance, Lual Buola who releases the stock and will be given to the dura sellers.
Governor Ngor said women needed to be entrusted with the responsibility to sell the sorghums to avoid what happened last year, when people squandered the grains by selling in maximum prices that the impoverished couldn’t manage to afford.
“I said before that the women will be entrusted a role to oversee the sale in the market. They are kind-hearted, so the local other committees will be filled up by women mostly,” he assured.
One of the residents, Deng Dut expressed joy over the government’s initiative of subsidizing the sale of sorghum at a reduced price from SSP 2,500 per 3.7 kilos of sorghum to SSP 1,000.
“This is an excellent intervention. Some traders buy in bulk but we want government to open their eyes to crackdown on such illicit dealers,” he counseled.
Part of the grains supplies is headed for Western Bahr El Ghazal and Warrap, states respectively according to the governor.