By Fatou Jaiteh
The permanent Secretary (PS) at the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Hassan Jallow, has cited access to finance as the main challenge to the development of agriculture in the Gambia.
Speaking on Tuesday at the Baobab Resort in Bijilo, where stakeholders met to validate the designed incentive-based risk sharing system for agricultural lending in the Gambia, Jallow pointed out,“Government has implemented several initiatives and interventions to increase access to finance to agriculture in the past.”
He recalled initiatives such as the defunct Agricultural Development Bank, the Gambia Cooperative Union, VISACAs, among others, but the PS further said, they still face the challenge of “affordable and sustainable access to finance to agriculture”.
He informed the gathering that the Ministry of Agriculture, through donor-funded projects, has adopted the Matching Grant approach to stimulate private sector investments into agriculture. He explained the aim is to help the selected Farmer Based Organizations (FBOs) and individual Agro-enterprises realize their productive capacities by assisting them with seed money for effective take off. And also to see agriculture as business opportunities that could be run profitably.
According to the PS, these initiatives have registered significant successes in several agro-enterprises; notwithstanding, he noted access to finance remains the main challenge to the modernization of agriculture.
Jallow thanked the African Development Bank (AfDB), and the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG) for their continuous support to the agriculture sector.
Deputy Permanent Secretary (DPS) Ms. Juldeh Ceesay of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, in her remarks said her Ministry attaches high priority to the advancement of agriculture as it continues to be a major pillar for the development of the economy.
“The sector contributes around 20 percent of the country’s GDP and generates 30 percent of its total foreign exchange earnings,” DPS Ceesay told her audience.
The workshop, chaired by Mr. Abdoulie Touray, Project Coordinator of the Central Project Coordinating Unit, brought together shareholders from both the public and the private sector.
