By: Nyima Sillah
HE President Adama Barrow has declared that the Faraba Banta University Campus is ready for operation in 2021.
His Excellency made this known in his televised New Year message saying “incidentally the Faraba Banta University Campus is ready for operation in 2023. Graduates from our various institutions will feed into the National Employment Policy goal of creating one hundred and fifty thousand (150,000) jobs within the next five years.”
He noted that his government takes education, health, and agriculture with utmost seriousness. Adding that thirty percent (30%) of the 2023 national budget is allocated to these sectors serves as evidence.
President Barrow stated that there is a sharp Government focus on economic recovery, agricultural production, construction, and tourism to reduce global pressures on the country’s economy.
“As a tax-based economy, we must create jobs and pay taxes willingly. Aided by new technology, we have improved tax collection and are determined to build on this success.”
More so, he went on that “It is obvious that we cannot develop in the absence of a capable human resource stock. As such, the Government highly prioritizes education, skills development, and job creation to boost our human resource capabilities.”
Meanwhile, “Lessons learned from the COVID-19 and AKI outbreaks have put us in a stronger position to strengthen our health system further. The Task Force I set up is investigating the cause of the AKI outbreak and will submit its report in the New Year,” he revealed.
In addition, the President said that they will review the report together with the recommendations from the National Assembly to inform Government’s decision on the matter.
“The outbreak was indeed tragic. We sympathize with all the families and persons affected and mourn the loss of those precious Gambian children. I assure the nation that the Government will do all it takes to discover what led to the tragedy and how to prevent its recurrence.”
According to him, the initiative they took to improve the health infrastructure is advancing smoothly. And besides, the widespread construction works in progress, they plan to transform the Basse and Brikama health facilities into regional hospitals and Construction will begin in 2023.