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Banjul Central NAM raises alarm over depreciation of Dalasi

Jan 6, 2025, 10:59 AM | Article By: Jankey Ceesay 

The National Assembly Member for Banjul Central Hon. Abdoulie Njai, has expressed concern over the depreciation of the Gambian Dalasi, saying it is a cause for alarm.

“The currency depreciation is a cause for concern because currently, our dalasi is going through high devaluation process,” he said during the adjournment debate at the National Assembly.

He also noted that couple of years ago, the exchange process usually happens within the borders but nowadays, people exchange currency anywhere even in shops which he believes is a factor for the depreciation.

“Some business transactions in The Gambia are done with the CFA currency but it’s not the other way round,” he further pointed out.

 “Right now, transactions are taking place in The Gambia without using the dalasi but using the CFA instead, and I have been to Senegal multiple times and I never come across a transaction being done using our dalasi. So I think we really need to look into these areas because we are going through high level of monetary depreciation because of some of these monetary fiscal lapses,” he observed.

He acknowledged that the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG), has put in place regulations and policies but more needs to be done.

“Though CBG has recently enhanced some of their regulations, I have seen recently that they have augmented their policies to be able to make it stringent but I think they should put more efforts into making it more stringent to be able to combat most of these things. Though the policies are ok, the regulations are good, but still there are more pragmatic processes that need to take place, whereby if necessary the security sector can be involved in the process to make sure that these people are pushed further so that it will make the dalasi more valuable,” he opined.