By: Fatou Krubally
The Gambia Government has collected GMD13.78 billion in domestic revenue in the first half of 2025, marking a 29 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024.
This was disclosed by Finance Minister Seedy Keita’s mid-year budget performance statement delivered to the National Assembly on Monday.
But Mr. Keita was quick to add that higher government spending pushed the mid-year budget deficit to D724.8 million.
Minister Keita said the revenue performance represented 43 percent of the 2025 annual target of D32.1 billion, and an over-performance of nine percent against the mid-year projection of GMD12.6 billion. He attributed the growth to strong collections in taxes on profits and capital gains, goods and services, international trade, and improved non-tax revenues.
Total expenditure during the period stood at GMD14.51 billion, equivalent to 45 percent of the approved annual budget of GMD32.3 billion. The main expenditure drivers were personnel emoluments, which registered a 54 percent execution rate, subsidies and transfers at 53 percent, and domestic interest payments at 47 percent.
“The increase in revenue underscores positive momentum in fiscal mobilization efforts,” Keita told lawmakers. “However, this has been accompanied by significant spending pressures, particularly in debt service, personnel costs, and subsidies.”
Breakdown of revenues shows that taxes on profits and capital gains grew by 26 percent year-on-year, reaching GMD3.73 billion. Taxes on goods and services brought in GMD4.58 billion a 55 percent collection rate while international trade and transport taxes rose by 32 percent to GMD2.91 billion. Non-tax revenue, mainly from administrative fees, reached GMD2.4 billion, up 44 percent compared to the same period in 2024.
On the expenditure side, civil service salary increases and higher transfers to public institutions accounted for much of the growth. Personnel emoluments rose to GMD4.74 billion, while subsidies and transfers stood at GMD3.46 billion. Capital expenditure, however, declined by nine percent year-on-year to GMD1.37 billion.
Although the 2025 budget projected an annual deficit of GMD198.3 million, the mid-year shortfall reached nearly four times that figure. The minister said the government expected the gap to narrow in the second half of the year with the realization of program grants and tighter expenditure controls.
Concluding his statement, Keita stressed the need for continued fiscal discipline to “ensure stability while maintaining essential expenditures that support economic growth and development.”