Alieu Badara Joof, the newly appointed vice president of The Gambia has called on newly appointed State Minister of finance and governor of Central Bank to address rising cost of living as well as new Ministers of Interior and Defense to step up efforts and address insecurity in the country.
Mr Joof made this call while addressing a new crop of sworn in cabinet Ministers at State House in Banjul, as they were tasked to perform and deliver up to the country’s expectation for good developments.
“The recent election is a watershed in Gambian history. We cannot afford to fail. There are some pressing challenges that are facing us recently. One is the crisis of rising cost of living and I would challenge the Minister of Finance, the Governor of Central Bank, incoming Minister of Trade, GRA [Gambia Revenue Authority] people to come together work with Chamber of Commerce and business community to see how we could mitigate this difficult time,” he said.
“The second challenge is the security situation in this country. Again, the same challenges goes to the Minister of Interior, Minister Defense, security outfits of this country and see how best we can address those things so that this place is safe for everybody, safe for infrastructure, safe for tourism. Those two things we need to have immediate strategies to address those challenging issues,” he added.
Meanwhile, he urged the new cabinet to honestly work together through collaboration and consultation in order to bring development.
“To do that we have to work as a team and work as a team, we need to consult, we need to cooperate we need to dialogue, with the fragment the development agenda and therefore the realisation of the aspiration of the NDP (National Development Plan).
“Let’s work as a team, move the development agenda of this country. To fulfil the aspiration of the person who appointed us to these positions and by extension to fulfil the expectation of Gambian people,” he urged.