By: Kebba AF Touray
President Adama Barrow has reiterated his commitment to hold a referendum on a new Constitution for the Third Republic by December 2024.
The Gambian President repeated his commitment on Thursday 27th June 2024, while delivering the State of Nation Address, dubbed SoNA, 2024 at the National Assembly.
“Since 2017, my administration has embarked on significant legal reforms. Our efforts include introducing a new Constitution, and we remain committed to pursuing it this year. It is hoped that a referendum on the new Constitution will be held in December 2024,” he said.
The delivery of the SoNA is a constitutional requirement for the President to at least once in a legislative year, appear before the lawmakers, to update the citizens on the situations of the country, according to section 77 (1) of the 1997 Constitution.
The address features and focuses on providing highlights on salient and critical sectors of the Gambia, notably agriculture, health, finance, education, and fisheries among others.
On the economy, he said the Gambian economy surpassed the projected growth rate for Sub-Saharan Africa and stood at 5.3 percent.
He said that they have been implementing a series of public financial management reforms, and “as a welcome development, the IMF has approved a new hundred million dollars extended credit facility arrangement with the Gambia, thereby further supporting our economic recovery and structural reforms”
He said agriculture and natural resources are crucial feeders of the country’s economy and that the government has allocated D1.5 Billion for the purchase of groundnut, acquiring about 36,659 metric tons.
“Cereal production increased by 21 percent, rice by 27 percent, maize by 25 percent, millet by minus 14 percent, and sorghum by minus 17 percent, and overall, the sector has contributed 24.4 percent of the GDP,” he said.
On fisheries and water resources, he said that the total revenue collected from the sector decreased from D131,595,269.00 to D110,802,912.00, representing a decrease of D20,792,357.00.
“We Implemented a mini-borehole drilling project, with a budget of D10 Million from the Government Local Fund, and 15 communities now have access to safe and high-quality drinking water through the project,” said President Barrow.
On works and infrastructure, he said rural road programs stretching 365 km, fully funded by the national budget are advancing smoothly, and that they have completed the Saloum, Nianija, and SabachSanjal roads.
On water transport, he said that apart from refurbishing old ferries, they have procured two new ferries and are waiting for their delivery.
The tourism and culture, he said, has demonstrated remarkable resilience, with growth in tourist arrivals over improvement in the arrival of tourists, and 2023 there was a 13 percent increase in arrivals resulting in the arrival of a total of 206, 836 arrivals, compared to 182,795 in 2022.
On the trade ministry, he said: “In collaboration with the Finance Ministry, the Gambia secured a US$50 Million trade finance facility from BADEA to support the importation of essential food commodities and fuel. The facility is to facilitate continuous availability and affordability of these commodities”.
On petroleum and energy, he remarked that NAWEC has embarked on transforming energy and water provision nationwide, which targets universal access to electricity by 2025, and includes specific national integrated water resources management targets.
He said, “In a major development of the Gambia’s energy, the sector company commissioned a 23MW solar power plant in Jambur”.
On the environment, he said that Ministry is currently developing a legal framework to oversee the carbon trading market in the Gambia, aiming to better manage climate risks
“The Ministry with assistance from the World Bank, is formulating the country’s first-ever National Land Policy. The policy will introduce a land tenure system to ensure tenure security, equitable land access, and promote sustainable use of land resources,” President Barrow said on the lands ministry.
He reported that the digital economy ministry has made significant progress on e-government initiatives with the support of the World Bank through the West Africa Digital Integration Program, which involves rolling out a second submarine cable to speed up connectivity.
The public service ministry, he said, is undertaking a comprehensive review of the functions of the MDAs, to identify institutional overlaps, competing mandates, and redundancies, and there are 8,427 vacant positions across Ministries, with most of them in Interior, Defense, and Health Ministries.
On national security, he said: “Our survival as a nation, he reported that on crime rate 4894 crime cases were recorded in 2022 whilst 4567 were recorded in 2023, marking a decrease of 6.6 percent, and in 2022, 1002 traffic cases were registered with 922 registered in 2023.”
“The Ministry in collaboration with the Social Protection Secretariat, has rolled out the government-funded initiative of mainstreaming social assistance, rolled out substantial funding programs amounting to D30 Million,” he said on the gender ministry.
The education sector, he said, has registered significant progress, and from 2022 to 2023, they registered growth in infrastructure, including the construction of over 775 new classrooms and 1,030 toilet facilities for both conventional and non-conventional schools.
Concerning Youth and Sports, he told the assembly that the Youth and Sports Development levy has facilitated the construction of sports facilities in strategic national locations, and the implementation of the Youth and Sports Revolving Loan Fund.
On the health ministry, he told the lawmakers that the government committed to delivering quality health care services, with a focus on Primary Health, “government has allocated D250 Million to procure essential medicines to readily ensure treatment of common communicable diseases for maternal and child health”.
Foroyaa will serialise the president’s State of the Nation Address in its subsequent editions.
