By Landing Colley
Hon. Halifa Sallah, national assembly member for Serrekunda has said The Gambia’s debt is at, 71.3 billion dalasi.
“Hon. Speaker, 71.3 billion is the debt of this country, 81.5% of GDP. 48% are living in abject poverty hon. Speaker. 543,000 children are in our school system. They come out. How are they going to live? Hon. Speaker, look at our farmers. People complain and complain. What is the solution?” he said during the adjournment debate.
“You need a bank that would give the farmers fertilizer, seeds, farming implements to produce and free themselves from poverty. You have your villages 54 years. Which village has a treasury? You are beggars. Each village should have a treasury. What the village pays goes into the treasury. Each village should have means of production, land, aquaculture, the farm. Cooperative bank will give the village what it needs to produce and put it in the village fund to provide milling machines, to provide water, to provide health facilities. The answers are there. That is the debate.”
“Young people everywhere – I went to Kigali hon. Speaker, and every young person wants to be an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur without the means of production comes out of GTTI with the knowledge. Who is gives you a milling machine to be able to process? Who is gives you a wielding machine to be able to work? That is what you need. Anybody who is train will also be given a means of production, chained to the production system. 2.4 billion, is what is spent on rice when we can produce the rice? When we can get our young people employed in processing that rice. When we can get all those women who want to sell, we can give them the seed money to be able to buy to also sell it. We can produce our own houses,” he added.
