Politics is an honourable vocation when anchored in public service. But our development model should ensure that a young Gambian sees greater long-term opportunity in building a business, commercialising agriculture, developing technology, manufacturing, exporting and creating jobs than in seeking political patronage or public appointment.
The Gambia cannot build prosperity principally through government employment, imports, consumption and public expenditure. Sustainable transformation requires a much larger productive private sector.
Our national objective should therefore be to make enterprise more rewarding, investment less risky and production more competitive.
From import dependence to production
Mr President, The Gambia should systematically identify goods that can competitively be produced locally.
Agriculture must move beyond subsistence towards commercial farming, irrigation, mechanisation, agro-processing, storage and regional exports. Poultry, horticulture, fisheries, livestock and food processing can create employment while reducing selected import dependence.
Energy policy must support this transformation. Reliable and competitively priced electricity is not merely a utility issue—it is an industrialisation policy.
Put Gambian SMES at the centre
Mr President, our MSMEs require more than speeches about entrepreneurship.
They need affordable finance, serviced industrial land, reliable electricity, simpler licensing, predictable taxation, technical assistance and access to markets.
Government procurement can become a powerful development instrument while preserving competition and value for money. Where legally and commercially appropriate, procurement frameworks can improve opportunities for qualified Gambian enterprises, SMEs, women- and youth-led businesses and domestic suppliers.
The objective should be to build companies capable of eventually competing beyond The Gambia.
Capital must reach productive businesses
Mr President, one of the greatest constraints on Gambian enterprise remains the availability and cost of long-term capital.
The country should deepen mechanisms for SME credit guarantees, development finance, equity investment, venture capital, leasing, agricultural finance and capital-market financing.
Our diaspora should also be viewed not merely as a source of remittances, but as a reservoir of investment capital, professional expertise, technology and international networks.
Transparency must protect competition
Mr President, public procurement, concessions, licences, land allocation and PPPs must operate through credible and transparent institutions.
The governing principle should be:
Know-how must matter more than know-who
Mr President, investors must know that contracts will be respected, regulations consistently applied and disputes fairly resolved.
Strong institutions are therefore not separate from economic development. They are economic infrastructure.
Five practical national priorities
Mr President, The Gambia could sharpen its economic policy around five measurable objectives:
1. Produce more of what we consume.
2. Export more of what we produce.
3. Finance more Gambian enterprises.
4. Create more private-sector jobs than political appointments.
5. Reward productivity, innovation and integrity rather than connections.
Mr President, government cannot—and should not—become the principal employer, financier, contractor and source of individual economic advancement.
Its greater responsibility is to create the environment in which Gambians themselves can prosper.
Let our brightest young people aspire to become farmers, engineers, manufacturers, technology entrepreneurs, exporters, financiers and industrialists as readily as they aspire to public office.
Let politics represent service, sacrifice and stewardship.
And let enterprise, investment, innovation and hard work become the principal pathways to prosperity.
That is how The Gambia can move from an economy dominated by consumption and imports towards one increasingly driven by production, investment, exports and Gambian-owned enterprise.
Good day!