CTV Africa

                                During the National Interfaith Dialogue to ensure continuity in peaceful coexistence through religious tolerance and dialogue, participants were poised to further promote interfaith tolerance between Muslims and Christian communities in the country. The two days convergence held at the Metzy Residence yesterday and today is organized by Activista, The Gambia with funding from Action Aid International, The Gambia (AAITG). The dialogue was graced by representatives from the Supreme Islamic Council, the Gambia Christian Council, diverse youth groups including political groups and the media. Ndella Faye Colley, the Executive Director of AAITG stated that the forum focused on promoting interfaith dialogue to enhance peace-building, and tolerance and to strengthen our social cohesion and co-existence. She added that people are different, saying we need to appreciate each other’s differences. “It is known that everyone is the same in the Gambia and we s

The 2020 audit report on the government's Covid-19 response to the overseas student relief package released by the National Audit Office (NAO) revealed that a difference of D1, 380,186.08 was noted between funds received and recorded in the embassies' cashbooks and payments made to students. The government of the Gambia through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA) allocated 29.1 million Dalasi as a relief package to Gambian students studying overseas who are not under The Gambia government scholarship. As at the end of September 2020, the audit report noted that D18,997,480.00 was disbursed to The Gambia embassies in respect of the overseas student relief package, adding that the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science, and Technology (MoHERST) is responsible for the administration of the payment to The Gambia Embassies, who then disburse the entitled amount to the beneficiary students. “Unconfirmed Payments to Students Remittance to the tune of

GIZ ECOWAS FRSD, on Tuesday, convened a working session-one of the expert groups on Agriculture Value Chain Financing (AVCF) to develop policy guidelines for scaling up digital and agricultural value chain finance capability in the Gambia. The expert group is a voluntary multi-stakeholder group whose members represents actors from public, private and civil society institutions, and international development partners. The group also represents academia financial service providers, ATVET tertiary institutions, government policymakers and regulators, farmers and producer cooperatives, advocacy groups and practitioners in related sectors. The expert group will contribute to delivering an outline report on key constraints to digital and AVCF development in the Gambia; a report highlighting the policy tools for digital and AVCF in the Gambia in collaboration with the consultants; and a report and commitment document outlining their institution’s plan to advance digital and AVCF. Spea

According to the National Audit Office (NAO) on the 2022 Government’s Covid-19 response phase-one, the Gambia Government spent GMD199, 979,708 on procurement and the usage of quarantine facilities without conducting a needs assessment. The report noted that the team requested evidence of needs assessment carried out at the initial stage of any procurement activity but remained outstanding. NAO added that procurement should not be carried out without proper needs assessment as it is an important activity that ensures that the required quarantine Centres or facilities are procured and used which will help avoid wastage of resources. On the failure to comply with the procurement process and procedures, NAO revealed that services totalling D8, 995,235 were rendered even before the request for approval was sent to GPPA. The NAO report further noted that all proposed contracts for procurement shall be submitted to the authority for its approval, along with the complete contract file.

The GIZ ECOWAS Fund for Regional Stabilisation and Development (FRSD) in partnership with the Center for Policy, Research and Strategic Studies (CepRass), yesterday held a day-long training for financial service providers on agriculture value chain capability in The Gambia. Speaking at the event held at the Metzy residence in Kotu, Mariama Ashcroft, technical adviser for the access to finance with GIZ ECOWAS FRSD, stated that they have the vision to do more than what the project required them, which was to initially give starter kits to young entrepreneurs who want to start a business in the agriculture sector. She explained that they wanted to know the root cause of why young people are not able to start a business without having the request for a grant, saying that’s why they decided to look at the system for access to finance to identify the barriers and bottlenecks that prevent young people from starting a business on agriculture. Madam Ashcroft went on to say that is where they de

                                Known for their immense contribution to the socio-economic development of the country, GIZ ECOWAS FRSD yesterday disbursed starter kits to 10 beneficiaries in the poultry, fisheries and horticulture sector. The beneficiaries that include nine individuals and a group were boost with Broiler Day-old Chicks, 50kg Bag of Starters, 50kg Bag of Growers, 50kg Bag of Finishers, Vial of vaccines HB1 (500 doses), Vial Gumboro (500 doses), Manual Weighing scales (100 Kg), Solar lamp, Wheel Barrows, rakes, spades among others. The event held at the National Association of Cooperative Credit Union (NACCUG), brought together different beneficiaries from the various field in the agricultural value chain to boost their capability and strength to perform immensely. The first phase of the intervention targets over 325 beneficiaries. Speaking at the occasion, Foday Sanyang, CEO and General Manager of NACCUG explained that NACCUG has entered into an agreement with GIZ ECOWA