Maravi

Libreville's high prices stun Chipolopolo fans

Libreville's high prices stun Chipolopolo fans
By Bivan Saluseki in Libreville, Gabon
Wed 15 Feb. 2012, 11:59 CAT

HUNDREDS of soccer fans that travelled to Libreville to cheer the Chipolopolo Boys were on Sunday left stunned by the exorbitant prices of food, drinks and accommodation in the Gabonese capital.

Libreville is ranked the third most expensive city in Africa after Luanda in Angola and N'Djamena in Chad and comfortably takes the 12th slot on the list of the most expensive cities in the world.

According to Mercer's 2011 Cost of Living Survey, Luanda is the world's most expensive city with Tokyo coming second and N'Djamena in third place. Moscow follows in fourth position with Geneva in fifth and Osaka in sixth. Zurich ranks seventh, Singapore eight, while Hong Kong is ninth, Sao Paulo tenth, Nagoya eleventh and Libreville takes the twelfth slot, with the least expensive cities in the region being Tunis and Addis Ababa.

Gabonese in Libreville tried to cash in on the foreign nationals that had poured in to watch the Africa Cup final between Ivory Coast and Zambia.

A plate of chicken and chips, which usually costs as low as K11,000 in Zambia, was costing above US$40 (K200,000) while a soda was way above US$10 (K50,000) even in third rate and backyard eateries.

Alligator delicacies cost a staggering US$ 50 per plate and very few opted for the dish.

The soccer fans that wanted to have the luxuries of a beer had to painfully part with US$20 (K100,000) for a bottle of Heineken.

The highly-pegged prices of alcoholic beverages, though, could not deter many a Zambian soccer fan that drank the night away in celebration after their soccer team's victory.

The limited accommodation and the high prices meant that most of the fans that remained in Libreville opted to wind the clock by drinking the night away.

There was an increase, too, in accommodation charges with unrated guesthouses charging as much as US$400 (K2 million) per room.

Earlier on Saturday, there were chaotic scenes at Leon M'ba International Airport's Visa Section where two planes carrying the soccer fans landed in succession.

The Gabonese authorities struggled, albeit in a clumsy way, to handle the pressure from the jubilant fans, earlier buoyed by the team's performance.

The first expense to hit the fans pocket was the visa fee pegged at US $60 and most of them, seemingly unprepared for the amount, were however not deterred.

Hundreds of them braved the rains to watch the national team win the Africa Cup.

President Ali Bongo Ondimba's Gabon has been under an ambitious economic and social reforms programme although his father's iron fist on the country is still visible from the security apparatus in a country with very large natural gas deposits currently estimated at over 39 billion cubic metres.

Critics said Ondimba's late father Omar Bongo used revenues from Gabon's 2.5 billion barrels of oil reserves to guarantee his grip on power. They also claim that Omar Bongo carefully allowed just enough oil money to trickle down to the general population of 1.4 million.

Labels: FOOTBALL, GABON, INFLATION

posted by MrK @ 3:03 PM