Tension in Côte d’Ivoire in recent days around the issue of purchasing power. Faced with still high inflation and as subsidies on basic necessities begin to run out, the country’s two main traders’ organizations clashed over what to do next.
With our correspondent in Abidjan, Marine Jeannin
First there was the strike slogan, launched to traders by the National Federation of Trade Actors (Fenacci). Its president Farikou Soumahoro denounces excessive zeal, committed by the police responsible for controlling traders, and calls for a relaxation of these controls, in particular during the end of year celebrations.
” The majority of traders are illiterate, so from a legal and legal point of view, they don’t know that. So we can pretext any defect whatsoever to force them to pay certain fines. And the merchant is not a philanthropist: when he pays for something, he reports that on his selling price! », Explains the president of Fenacci.
A strike rejected by Apopc-CI
Opposite, the Permanent Assembly of Professional Organizations of Tradesmen of Côte d’Ivoire, the Apopc-CI, which brings together some fifty organizations, rejected the call for a strike. Mohamed Dembele, the president of the Traders Union, with a more liberal line, says he maintains his confidence in the government.
” The socio-political situation today is really very peaceful, assures Mohamed Dembele. We must not yet mount tensions that will harm the good cohesion of economic affairs in Côte d’Ivoire. Today, if we allow ourselves a day of strike, it is a huge lack of money for ourselves, the traders. So we can’t tell ourselves that we’re going to go on strike unnecessarily, just like that, without a valid reason. »
And it is finally the Apopc-CI which will have prevailed, since Fenacci, in a minority position, agreed to end the strike planned for Monday. The problem of purchasing power remains unresolved.
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