By Kebba AF Touray
Mr. Baboucarr Joof, the Gambia’s Minister of Trade and Employment, has told the National Assembly that they are engaging the government of Senegal, to remove all barriers to trade between the two neighbouring countries.
He said this while responding to major concerns raised by legislators, during the adjournment debate at the National Assembly
During the debate, lawmakers raised four major concerns regarding the Ministry, namely, trade relations with Senegal, in the areas of movement of people and goods, trading between the two states, and the issue of the Special Investment Certificates Audit.
The Trade Minister told the plenary that recently, he and the Commissioner General of the Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA), Yankuba Darboe, each led a team comprising key stakeholders to discuss trade promotion, adding, “We are engaging the Senegalese government to remove all tariff barriers to trade and we are hopeful that our effort will yield the desired outcome.”
He expressed hope that his ministry would dismantle all barriers to trade between Banjul and Dakar.
On the purpose of the President’s recent visit to industrial sites, he told the assembly that the visit aimed at providing support to the visited investors, and to show government solidarity with them, adding that some of them are going into very unusual territories.
He said this is because the government is generally responsible for supporting all investments in the country, whether or not the investor is a Gambian.
“As a result, we went there to give them moral support and hope that this will entice other Gambians with the wherewithal to come over and invest in similar ventures in the Gambia, to create jobs and generate revenue,” he explained.
On the issue of the SIC audit, as raised by the members, he said on the 24th of July 2024, he received a report, and they questioned whether the SIC Audit had been conducted to confirm that those firms given Special Investment Certificate (SIC), are living by the promises they made at the time government gave them the incentives.
“So, I can tell you that we have seen the results and I have already received the draft cabinet paper from my people on the data that we got from that audit. This is going to cabinet immediately, and the outcome will be seen very soon”, Minister Joof told Lawmakers.
