Mambury Njie, minister of Finance and Economics Affairs, has stated that The Gambia’s challenges are not confined to the problem of its past.
He pointed out that in order to address these challenges the country must strategized and revitalize its private and public institution.
Njie, was speaking at the opening of a weeklong training organized by the Strategy and Management Institute (SMI) for senior government officials meant to boost the capacity and efficiency of these staff in addressing challenges faced by the Gambia government to meeting the needs and aspiration of the nationals.
“Despite the strive that we have made in developing our country for the past three years, it’s still clear that we still face a miles of challenges and to respond to these challenges government must restrategise and revitalize its private sector and its public institutions.
The Challenges we faced are not confine to the problems of the past but partly as a limitation in capacity to usher in ground breaking solutions for the country,” Njie, noted.
Minister Njie said the focus of the government is to work towards attaining the visions set out in the National Development Plan (NDP), arguing that the New Gambia possesses amply opportunities for the growth and development of the private sector but harnessing this opportunity must come with the responsibility of developing ones capacity to ensuring utmost success.
“As the government continues towards good governance and transforming the economy the need for strategic reforms cannot be overemphasis and am confidence heads of departments and institutions will benefit hugely from the course that the Strategy Management Institutes have for offer and am sure that will go a long way in turning our institutions around.
On the same note, the private sector is a key priority area for government and thus major players within the sector are competing at global level and the need to develop the capacity of their work force,” Njie pointed out.
Minister Njie expresses his confidence on the capabilities of the Strategy Management Institute (SMI) officials, stressing that the Institute couldn’t have come at any better time than this as government lay down plans to restrategise and revitalized the economy of the country as in line with the National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2021.
Anthony A. Taylor, Managing Director, of Strategy Management Institute (SMI), explained that the objective for the establishment of the SMI is to contribute to Gambia’s vision of improving the capacity of policy and decision makers both in the private sector and the public sector including entrepreneurs, observing that there is huge gap to be filled in term of capacity of the work force of both private sector and public sectors in delivering policy statements of the states.
“….And this Gambia is no exception compare to South- East Asian States, the higher capacity of the nation’s workforce the higher the growth of a country should be in terms of development, and The Gambia among other African countries have a lot more to do in catching up,” he said.
He added that this is one reason SMI is establish to assess in the development process of the country through filling the capacity needs of the country.
Taylor describes the level of cooperation and partnership between his institution and the private and public sector as fruitful and mutually beneficiary,.
He assured that his institute will continue to deliver high quality training to policy and decision makers in enhancing growth and development for the country.