By Sheriff Musa
President Adama Barrow Saturday outlined challenges facing private sector development in the Gambia, while recommitting his government’s resolve towards addressing them.
He was addressing the first 2024 meeting of the National Business Council held at State House on February 10th.
“I hereby recommit my government to resolving the bottlenecks constraining the development of the private sector,’’ Barrow remarked as he mentioned the challenges the first of which he said; ‘starting and running a business in the Gambia.’ According to him, that should be easy to attract investors and formalize businesses in the country. He discloses that his government is working with development partners to develop an online business registration platform that will be commissioned later in the year.
“The Business Council should continue monitoring this initiative, as it will have far-reaching benefits and positively impact the ease of doing business in the country,’’ he stated.
Moving on to the second challenge – ‘Cost of doing business’ President Barrow emphasized that businesses should shoulder a fair share of the burden of national development.Accordingly, he says, fiscal policies must be fine-tuned occasionally to support economic growth, enhance the people’s welfare, attract investment, and improve conditions for businesses to thrive.
Still, on the challenges, Barrow mentioned ‘access to business finance’. ‘’New strategies and policies need to be implemented to establish and improve access to business finance, especially for the manufacturing sector, which requires medium to long-term finance,’’ he added.
Barrow continues by pointing out ‘access to land for investment’ as the fourth challenge. He says, his government is thinking more strategically about identifying and accessing land for investment. However, he was quick to add, that the constraint associated with that challenge currently hindered private investment growth in the productive sectors, such as agriculture and manufacturing.
The fifth challenge outlined by President Barrow revolved around ‘Infrastructure’. ‘’Government will continue to invest significantly in infrastructure development to enhance The Gambia’s investment attractiveness and enable efficient business operations,’’ he promised.
Adding: ‘’along with this, electricity will be made reliable, consistent, and affordable.’’