Gambia pays 60% revenue as loan, depend on donors

By Pa Modou Cham
The president of The Gambia Adama Barrow has denounce that the county doesn’t have resources and we are paying 60% of our revenue on loans, adding that the 40% cannot develop this country and we are depending on donors.

“The project I launched is a grand from China. If you don’t have the resources, you should use your knowledge and get what you want and that’s what we are doing. We are innovative and we will continue to be innovative to move the country forward.

He was speaking on Saturday with GRTS Kabaculie Conteh in an exclusive interview held in state house.

He said it was not easy after 22 years from dictatorship but during the two years he served, they were able to achieve many things. He added that his main priority was to stabilize the economic, which they were able to do.

Answering a question about issues of social media, the president said people use to tell him to do something because those talking bad about him are testing the water but he do use to remind them where we came from. “Let us be positive because that’s the only way we can develop the country. Insulting the leadership will not benefit anybody. The civic education should educate the people on the role of democracy for everybody to know their role in the state of democracy.”

On health, he reiterated that he have been seeking for support from China and Turkey to build new building for hospitals as grand. He said they have medication supply for the health centers for 24 months and it’s also in their plans to build a referral hospital in Brikama because of the high population.

On institutional reforms, he said as government they believe in strong institutions but reform is not an easy process, saying “we have conducted a comprehensive for it and in that operation we were able to discovers 300 ghost workers and that could have save Gambia from lot of money in the budget and first time in the history of the country that the security service are audited.”

On education, he mentioned that there is free education for basic cycle to create a strong foundation and opportunity for all. He added that the government is building the capacities of its people by given them scholarship in many countries in Africa and Asia.

On agriculture, he explained that the old way of farming should stop; instead we should hold farming as business.