The
French Development Agency (AFD) and the government of The Gambia have signed a
financing agreement formalising a 2 million euro budget support to The Gambia.
The
minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Mambury Njie and Mr. Alexandre
Pointier, the French Development Agency (AFD) regional director for Senegal,
The Gambia, Cabo Verde and Guinea Bissau signed the financing agreement at a
ceremony held at the Ministry of Finance in Banjul on Tuesday.
At
the signing ceremony, Mr. Alexandre Pointier, expressed France’s willingness to
work toward the renovation of its diplomatic and economic relations with the
country, recalling that during the international donor conference for The
Gambia in Brussels in May 2018, France pledged to contribute to the economic
stabilisation of The Gambia and to support the implementation of the National
Development Plan with 50 million euro to be disbursed over 2018 to 2021.
The
financing agreement signed between AFD and the government of The Gambia, he
said, is a second budget support operation and it comes in addition to the
pledge made at the Brussels donor conference in 2018.
“The
French government granted a 5 million euro budget support to sustain the
macroeconomic stabilisation of the country and to ease the transition towards
an International Monetary Fund (IMF) financed program “.
Mr.
Pointier maintained that the purpose of this second operation was to safeguard
poverty reducing spending and to support efforts by the government of The
Gambia to restore fiscal balance.
“As
such it will both seek to safeguard poverty reducing expenditures and alleviate
the government’s financing gap”.
In
the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Republic of The Gambia and
the French Development Agency on November 5, 2018 in the presence of Mr. Jean
Yves L.E. Drian, minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, AFD Regional boss
expressed his institution’s commitment to further boost its cooperation with
The Gambia.
He
added that in the short-term, up to 26.5 million euro programmes will be
implemented, in addition to budget support in the areas of agriculture so as to
increase food sufficiency; access to water in urban areas and to support
sustainable public services development.
For
his part, Mambury Njie, the minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, thanked
the AFD for the budget support to The Gambia and said that the support would
help the government in its financial development areas.
“AFD
is France’s inclusive public development bank, it is committed to financing and
technical assistance to projects that genuinely improve everyday life, both in
developing and emerging countries and in the French overseas territories. The
action is fully in line with the sustainable development goals through its
network of 85 agencies. AFD operates in 109 counties where it is currently
financing, supervising and supporting over 3,600 development projects. “
