Bad Roads Hampering Commerce, Development in Bong County

Kpaii District, Bong County – Liberia’s bad roads are damaging livelihoods and hampering international commerce and business development, says a prominent trade-group leader.

Report by Selma Lomax, [email protected] 

“Deplorable roads are our major challenge for marketers. It is making things difficult for us this rainy season,” said a marketer at Jennipleta only identified as Ma Konah.

“We spend too much time on the road and achieve nothing in return. In some circumstances where we sleep for days our goods can spoil with nothing to gain as dividend.”

Last week, three vehicles carrying marketers to the Ivory Coast border were held up for four days in Kpaii town by a massive pool of water in the road. 

Ultimately the traders, who had to pay to sleep in nearby homes while stranded, were forced to haul their goods on their heads so their vehicles would be able to pass through the problem area. 

A FrontPageAfrica reporter on the scene Saturday saw goods damaged from falling into the water while being carried.

Some passengers had to pay local residents to help move a transport vehicle. ‘We will abandon cross-border trade if…’

If the rainy season further damages roads, business people may abandon ambitions for cross-border trade, Cooper warned. 

Bong marketers, Ma Konah said, may decide to save their

money for different enterprises that could produce better outcomes, rather than being involved in what she referred to as “capital-intensive” ventures.

“If the rainy season produces a more deplorable road then we could decide abandoning our intentions to save our incomes for the dry season next year,” she said.

Problems typical of the rainy season have come early for Bong County traders.

Heavy rainfall for the past week in some parts of the county has hampered business for people who travel to neighboring counties.  

Rain-filled potholes and deep mud have slowed vehicles significantly. 

“Our journeys to neighboring counties have been slow all due to the bad road condition,” said Miatta Benson, a dry-goods seller.

“Sometimes we are forced to sleep a day or two [en route].”