By: Kemo Kanyi
The Secretary-General and leader of the PDOIS, Halifa Sallah, has stated that The Gambia is “not growing”, arguing that whatever figures one present do not change the realities of the system in the country.
PDOIS leader made the argument on Coffee Time on Friday, pointing to the lack of a productive sector and the high value of imports over exports by The Gambia.
“The Gambia is importing up to D51 billion worth of goods annually. And simply exporting about D844 million from what we produce internally and about D4 billion from the export trade, added together, you get about D5 billion for exports. We have a deficit in 2023 of D46 billion, which was D11 billion in 2016,” he mentioned.
The veteran politician and system analyst pointed out that the country is importing more, but exporting almost the same, saying: “So, Gambia is not growing regardless of the figures that one gets from records.”
If you just look at the imports, according to Sallah, one sees growth that requires production, not just services, adding that production is the foundation of life.
He said The Gambia can’t produce its rice and vegetables to feed the nation.
“I continue to emphasise that a nation must have a productive private sector and a public sector that is productive, and a productive informal sector,” explained Halifa. He continued: “In China today, you will see that what they have done is that they have a state construction company, just like the Public Works Department (PWD), here in the past. They (China) also have private companies that they have financed, knowing that certain countries believe in such a private sector system, they will finance them to go into those countries to get contracts, and all the money goes back to the Chinese economy. So, China has developed this sophisticated way in the State and the private sector work together to help build China, but African countries are sleeping,” he pointed out.
He opined that the government must not allow the women to go to gardens and work for others who will be taking the benefits away when it can give those women seeds and other implements for their farming so that they own the farms and produce the vegetables, potatoes and all that they (women) need to produce so that the money will go to them.
“That’s how you build an economy, not to exploit your citizens and impoverish them. That system is what the Pan-Africans said should not happen,” he added.
He maintained that graduates from the Gambia Technical Training Institute (GTTI) should be empowered with machines to be able to process food, stating that will reduce the burden of unemployment on the government among the young people.
