Developing countries must spend resources in transparent manner

(Wednesday 21st November 2018 Issue)

Governor of Central Bank of The Gambia Bakary Jammeh said on Tuesday that in order to end extreme poverty and respond to the need of the people, governments of developing countries must spend their resources in an accountable and transparent manner

He said this would allow countries to deliver essential services needed by their citizens to end extreme poverty.  “In doing so, governments can quickly address issues to foster sustainable, broad-based economic growth and development as they provide the needs of their citizens.”

Speaking at the opening of a five-day regional course on domestic resource mobilization and economic management organized by West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM)  at a local hotel in Senegambia, Governor Jammeh said governments perform many economic functions, including developing macro-fiscal, frameworks, formulating and executing budgets.

He said progress continues to be made in recent decades and many developing countries are improving their skills to deliver the core functions of governments that affect public service delivery.

He said WAIFEM is potentially the biggest source of long term financing for sustainable development and it is the life blood of all sub national governance such as the provision of public goods and services.

 According to him, WAIFEM can help strengthen fiscal institutions because a stable and predictable revenue facilitates has a long term fiscal planning, which can help ensure that resources are allocated to priority sectors and are translated into desirable outcomes.

He said despite the challenges, opportunities do exist for enhancing domestic resource mobilization in Africa  generally and the West African sub-region in particular which includes inter African trade, broadening the existing tax base, improving tax administration capacity, rationalization of tax incentives and strengthening tax policies.

Professor Akpan H. Ekpo, director general of WAIFEM said the institution was established in 1996 by central banks of The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. He said the principle mandate of the institute is to strengthen capacity for improved macroeconomic and financial management in the constituent member countries.

“Since its inception, the institute has successfully executed 682 courses from which 18, 351 people benefited around the sub-region and beyond.”

He said WAIFEM has also started e-learning programmes in the public sector management and French language, saying it has been collaborating with the United Nations Institute for Training and Research to organize e-learning certificate course in French.

He commended Gambia government for accepting them to conduct the training programme in Banjul. He also thanked the governor of Central Bank of The Gambia and his team for the excellent logistics support provided.