In May 2018, international donors at a Donor conference held in Brussels pledged 1.7 billion dollars to The Gambia’s National Development Plan (NDP) 2018-2021.
The lawmakers wanted to know how much of this pledge had been received for the implementation of the government’s NDP.
Responding to a question posed by the NAM for Kiang West, Finance Minister Mamburay Njie said about 12% of the pledges has been received.
“Honourable speaker the implementation of the National Development Plan is progressing and so far a total of 199.57 million dollars have been disbursed towards the implementation of the NDP representing at 12% disbursement rate of the pledged amount.”
Asked the areas to which this said amount has been disbursed, the Finance Minister at the time could not provide the breakdown of the areas to which the monies have been disbursed and promised to provide that information subsequently.
President Adama Barrow and his entourage received a heroic welcome from Brussels in May 2018 after securing the unprecedented 1.7 billion dollars pledge by international donors around the world.
The government claimed a greater amount of the pledge will be in a form of projects.
Majority of Gambians were pleased when these funds were secured hoping it would be the beginning of a life changing period for them.
Three years down the lane, however, what seemed to be a beacon of hope for many at the time is yet to be felt by ordinary Gambians according to some.
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