By Assan Bah
Residents of Kerr Ardo have called for the government of President Adama Barrow to build a health facility and provide them with school furniture to enhance education delivery in the community.
They made this call during their meeting with the head of state who is currently on a nationwide tour also referred to as ‘Meet the People’s Tour.’ The Kerr Ardo meeting was a joint meeting for Central and Lower Badibou in the North Bank Region (NBR).
Salif Jallow, the Alkalo of Kerr Ardo said the government provided them with fertiliser and electricity that have transformed lives and livelihoods throughout the village, improved roads, healthcare, and school. He appealed for a hospital to be built in the community and for the Government to provide clean drinking water for his community.
Foday Drammeh, a native of Kerewan thanked the government for providing enough and affordable fertiliser to farmers. He called on the Government to support them this season since they have a poor harvest of groundnut.
“All those who cultivated maize, coos, and beans have good harvest. The only problem in this year’s cropping season is that the groundnut did not yield nuts,” Foday Drammeh said.
Fatou Bah, the Lady Councillor for the area said the school built in the community lacks some basic learning materials like furniture, asking the Government to provide them with the needed equipment, including furniture.
While expressing optimism on the yields for rice, maize, millet, and coos farms, Sankung Dampha, National Assembly Member (NAM) for Lower Badibou, joined his colleagues in the region to decry the poor harvest of the groundnut this season.
He appealed for the construction of good roads linking the communities to the rice fields, noting that farmers find it difficult to access the rice fields.
Dr Demba Sabally, the Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Food Security, reported in the meeting that the government had provided fertiliser in the Central Badibu District at no cost to the farmers.
“The government through the GAPSP project has provided gardens to Kinteh Kunda, Noo Kunda, and Njaaba Kunda with seeds and fertilizer. The ROOTS project will next maintain the women’s garden at Salikenni,” the Minister said.
The Minister called on farmers to desist from cultivating the grazing areas for cattle. He also preached against bush burning saying it destroys the forest cover.
On his part, President Barrow began his speech by calling for peace saying development cannot be achieved in the absence of peace.
He said as part of his commitment to improving the lives and livelihoods of Gambians, his government will restructure and increase the salaries of all civil servants by 30% starting January 2025, to ease the impacts of the cost of living.
According to him, the government wanted to have a 50% salary increment for all civil servants but was advised by their partners to reduce it by 30% citing other factors.
The President reported that his government has fully sponsored over five hundred TVET students across the country and has sponsored over two thousand (2,000) students at the University of the Gambia.
“Even other developed countries will not do such, what they do is to give these students loans which they repay after their studies,” he said.
On electricity supply, the President reported that since assuming office in 2017, his government had posted over two hundred thousand (200,000) electricity metres across the country.
“Since 1965, both Jawara’s and Jammeh’s regime combined, they posted one hundred and ninety-five thousand (195,000) electricity metres compared to my government’s two hundred thousand,” Barrow said, indicating that his government had posted more electricity metres than the leadership of Jawara and Jammeh combined.
“We have on average connected over three thousand (3,000) electricity metres every year,” he said.
On education, he reported that the two previous governments of Jawara and Jammeh had built about ten thousand classrooms (10,000).
“My government has provided over four thousand, thirty-three (4033) classrooms,” he said.
He also gave a figure for the number of classrooms his government refurbished.
“As we speak, we are currently constructing seven hundred (700) classrooms across the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, the meeting witnessed the presentation of 15 Million Dalasi to 43 beneficiaries by the GIRAV project marching grant and 2.95 Million Dalasi from the Women Enterprise Initiative to support women empowerment.
