This development, he said, was geared towards ensuring that the country’s electricity giant National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC) doesn’t increase its tariff.
Minister Keita, who was speaking at Jarra Soma during a meeting as part of activities marking the ongoing Meet the People’s Tour by President Barrow, said: “This year, NAWEC owed huge loans and they didn’t have the money to repay. What they wanted was to increase the tariff. However, the president insisted that electricity bills will not be increased and that’s why the government decided to bail them out.”
The government, he said, decided to take one hundred and forty million dalasis, which amounts to USA$20 million dollars from its coffers to bail NAWEC to ensure that the electricity bills remain as they were.”
On the area of education, he claims, “there is free education from kindergarten level to grade 12. In fact, the president is sponsoring about 50% of the students at the University of The Gambia.”
“The government of The Gambia under the leadership of President Barrow has made LRR a special economic zone. Again, the entire country is benefiting from electricity, something which was not happening in the region.”
“Since independence, Kabada has never had a road. However, currently, the government is constructing roads within the area that are fully funded by the government,” he said commenting on the various ongoing road constructions.
He expressed optimism that by the end of 2025, the entire country will have access to electricity supply.
On the issue of the government’s proposed salary increment next year, he said: “Due to the president's commitment to addressing the welfare of civil servants in the country, the government will be increasing salaries by January 2025. The president understands the work of the civil servants, thus he wants to ensure that they are well paid. It was difficult between us and partners amid the proposed salary increment.”
He continued: “In fact, the government initially wanted a 75% salary increment. However, this couldn’t materialise because of advice from our international partners.”
“Therefore, it’s important to note that since Barrow’s government came into power in 2017, it has increased the salaries to about 110%. In 2019, we have a 50% increment and in 2022 30% salary increment and also there will be 30% salary increment in 2025,” Finance Minister Keita disclosed.
He further disclosed that civil servants that are under the category of grade one to grade three, under the government pay scale, will now have an increment up to 74% including their allowances.
“Our plan is to ensure that no civil servant is paid less than 6,000 dalasis. Again, any individual that is receiving less than 3,000 dalasis, the individual will not pay any tax.”
The government, he went on, has set aside five billion dalasis just on the education sector in this year’s budget, saying: “The inflation in the sub region is very high. However, aside from the CFA, the dalasis is reduced than any other currencies within the sub-region,” he stated, further claiming that the country’s economy is one of the 20 fastest growing economies.”
