Visiting Indian President Ram Nath Kovind, has pledged to The Gambia half a billion US dollars to support the West African nation artist industry and skills development.
President Nath Kovind who arrived in Banjul on Tuesday, made the announcement at State House in Banjul on Wednesday at a press conference after his closed-door meeting with his host Gambian leader, Adama Barrow.
“We’ve decided to extend assistance of half a billion US dollars in support of skills development and artist industry project. We also agreed to offer training in the fields of judiciary, police, administration and technical expertise as per the request and in line with the priorities of the Gambian side,” he announced
President Kovind commended The Gambia for supporting India’s candidature for a permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council.
President Barrow revealed that the debt relief is for a period of five years and he did not give any figures.
According to him, debt is a big burden, saying that he and his Indian counterpart have discussed that and at least he gave the country a debt relief of five years that will assist The Gambia to implement some of its projects.
He also said The Gambia has been paying sixty percent of the taxes collected monthly to service the debt, revealing that last month The Gambian government paid over D600 million to service the debt.