By: Binta Jaiteh
President Adama Barrow has stated that the government will adopt measures to stabilise basic commodity prices to lower the cost of living.
In his State of the Nation Address on Thursday at the National Assembly in Banjul, he said that the government will maintain a market-driven exchange rate and implement climate-sensitive policies for a sustainable future.
He revealed that the Gambian Diaspora continues to contribute meaningfully to national progress, noting that their support fuels our development endeavours and underscores our collective resilience and enterprise.
“We remain resolute in implementing our YIRIWA Development Plan and are more committed than ever to enhancing our economy through sustainable and resilient practices. We are determined that all Gambians benefit from the economy. Despite global and regional challenges, the growth rate was five-point-eight percent (5.8%) in 2024, with a projection of five-point-nine percent (5.9%) by December 2025. Inflation dropped significantly from seventeen-point-three percent (17.3%) in 2023 to ten-point-two percent (10.2%) in 2024. This strong performance
was realised through solid growth in financial services, trade, construction, and mining, “President Barrow highlighted.
He added that global trade troubles, geopolitical tensions, and instability in commodity prices continue to pose significant risks to this outlook.
“Initial balance of payments estimates indicate a modest improvement on the current account balance of 2024, supported by a rebound in tourism, private remittances, and official inflows. The domestic foreign exchange market also continues to function smoothly,” he noted.
President Barrow indicated that private remittance inflow, which is a major source of foreign currency, remained robust and amounted to seven hundred and seventy-five million, six hundred thousand US Dollars (US$775.6 million) in 2024.
He said that this is a four percent (4%) increase over the seven hundred and forty-six million, eight hundred thousand US Dollars (US$746.8 million) reported in 2023.
He disclosed that the government is strengthening internal security, modernising national identity card management, and national security infrastructure, and digitalisation of national documents is in progress, and will replace the concession contract for the National ID system.
“The ID cards will be integrated with the electronic civil registration and vital statistics, passport, and other identification databases to create a unified digital ID system that is locally designed, built, operated, and managed by our services. This initiative will expand our revenue base, improve national security, enhance service delivery, and ensure knowledge transfer and ownership,” President Barrow disclosed.