By Haddy Touray
Alhaji Mamadi Kurang, a chartered accountant and member of the United Democratic Party (UDP), has challenged the government’s presentation of The Gambia’s reported six percent economic growth, arguing that the figure masks persistent hardship among ordinary Gambians.
Speaking in an interview with QTV, Kurang described the country’s economic performance as a “growth illusion”, saying headline growth figures do not necessarily translate into improved living standards at household level.
“You can have growth, but if you really look behind the numbers, you tend to see something that is not really impressive,” he said.
Kurang did not dispute the reported growth rate but questioned whether the benefits of economic expansion were reaching a sufficiently large proportion of the population.
He identified food insecurity, uneven distribution of economic activity and foreign ownership in key productive sectors as factors limiting the impact of economic growth on ordinary households.
Agriculture, he said, illustrates the disparity, noting that the sector employs a significant proportion of the country’s workforce, while many agricultural workers remain underemployed and have seen limited benefits from growth in other sectors.
Kurang also cited tourism, telecommunications and banking as sectors contributing to economic expansion but which, he argued, depend heavily on foreign capital.
He said a significant portion of profits generated in these sectors may therefore not circulate widely within the domestic economy.
In tourism, Kurang pointed to hotel workers, juice sellers, peanut vendors and craft traders whose livelihoods depend on the sector, arguing that many have not experienced improvements corresponding to the growth reflected in national statistics.
He said policymakers should focus not only on economic growth figures but also on whether households have greater purchasing power, more secure employment and better access to food than they did five years ago.
Kurang also raised concerns over population growth, arguing that rapid population increases could dilute the impact of overall economic expansion on per-capita incomes.
“If you have six percent growth, then you go back and check how much the population growth is, and you realize that The Gambia’s real growth is suffering simply because the population growth is outstripping the real growth in the economy,” he said.
He further referred to World Bank projections which, according to him, point to weaker real growth over the coming years.
Kurang stressed that his criticism was not directed at the accuracy of the economic data but at how the figures are interpreted and presented to the public.
He argued that the real measure of economic progress should be whether economic growth translates into higher household incomes, secure employment, improved food security and better living conditions.
“The central question is not simply whether The Gambia’s economy is growing, but who is benefiting from that growth,” he said.
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