By: Kemo Kanyi
The Gambia’s Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Demba Sabally, has hailed as remarkable the contribution of the African Development Bank (ADB) towards the attainment of food self-sufficiency in The Gambia.
It could be recalled that the Board of Directors of ADB on Monday approved an additional US$12M in financing from the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program to support income generation, food sovereignty, and food value-chain sustainability in The Gambia.
“The additional finance project has been designed with the overall objective to increase food and nutritional security as well as household income, particularly for the vulnerable households in the five administrative regions of Central River Region, Lower River Region, Upper River Region, North Bank Region and West Coast Region of The Gambia through the strengthening of the Sustainable Home-Grown School Feeding Programme,” ADB’s Mr. Philip Boahen highlighted.
Dr. Sabally meanwhile expressed delight and satisfaction over the additional ADB financing.
“This program dubbed AfDB-GAFSP Project Portfolio Review 2024 is important simply because both the African Development Bank and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program are among the most consistent of our development partners in the transformation of the agriculture sector for poverty reduction and food and nutrition security in The Gambia,” minister Sabally stressed.
“Equally, the project’s role in home-grown school feeding through synergy with the World Food Program is not only for nutritional deficiency in school-going children but also plays a significant role in the reduction of school dropouts and creates better educational outcomes in enrollment, retention, and performance,” the apparently elated Dr. Sabally said.
He thanked the ADB and GAFSP for the additional financial support and assured them of an effective and judicious utilization of the funds.
