As Gambians Groan Under Yoke of Economic Hardship
By: Momodou Justice Darboe
The talk of the town these days revolvesaround the Gambia government’s inability to efficiently and effectively provide basic social services for the population amid wild allegation of official graft against government officials.
At the time of writing this article, several parts of the Greater Banjul Area were battling severe power outages and acute water stress.
For the past weeks or so, power supply had become stressfully erratic, causing massive disruptions to economic activities and loss of earnings for many Gambians and residents of the country.
Meanwhile, students at the lower and upper basic schools resumed for the 2024/2025 academic year without textbooks and according to reports, School Improvement Grants(SIGs) could not be immediately disbursed.
Currently, many lower and upper basic school students are going to school without vital textbooks; a situation that continue to worry many parents and guardians.
Last week, lecturers of the University ofApplied Sciences (USET) reportedly threatened to down their tools over unpaid allowances and other issues of concern to them.
It’s still a nightmare for many members of the population to commute from point A to B as transport costs continue to dig a hole in many household budgets.
The prohibitive cost of living is pushing many Gambians to the limit of their ability to spend. Food and housing costs are threatening to sweep the man in the street deeper beneath the poverty line.
So, what have Gambians been saying about this state of economic and social affairs?
Modou Lamin Ceesay is a roadside vendor and this is his perspective on the status quo:
“This is Serekunda market but it’s virtually deserted now. Customers are not bargaining a lot let alone buying our wares,” he lamented.
In a chat with this reporter, housewife FatouSaidy said Gambians are going through turbulent economic times.
“We risk being reduced to beggars and paupers in our own country because our earnings are not commensurate with our expenditures. Prices are rocketing sky-high each passing day while the government of the day seems unbothered about the situation. If they cared, they would have reigned in the insane food prices,” she added.
According to her, it’s a matter of life and death struggle for many households to provide three meals a day.
“A bag of Saddam rice is now the preserve of the well-to-do members of our society as it hovers around D3000. Even the prices of rice varieties that are considered to be of inferior quality are spiraling out of the reach of the average Gambian,” she maintained.
In a chat with this reporter, one Kabiru Jatta, who calls himself a concerned Gambian, said The Gambia is drifting towards a failed State and must be rescued.
“Our institutions of State are failing in many respects. This should be enough warning for all Gambians to unite and vote out the NPP administration come the 2026 presidential election or else they would continue to impoverish us,” he added.
One of our interlocutors Musa Jobe said: “Looking at the water, electricity, education, security, economic and other sectors, you would not find it difficult to understand that things are not going fine in this country,” he maintained.”
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of The Gambia said it was making progress in taming inflation as it worked to trim inflation from double to single digit.
However, this reported progress has not been seen in many quarters as a stabilizer of the inflationary pressures on the population.
Many people accuse the government of diverting meagre resources to sectors of lesser importance to the socio-economic wellbeing of Gambians.
