He urged the Ministry of Finance to start working on ways and means whereby the country can grow her sovereign wealth.
“To do this, we have to start investing in productive ways of our economy. This is when we can improve on our revenue and when that revenue is added to the taxation, then our national envelope will become sustainable,” he said during an adjournment debate on Thursday.
“It is refreshing to note that the Gambian economy has grown with over 5% and both the fiscal and monetary policies are robust. Inflation is also on a downward scale. However, The Gambia is a tax base economy which is unsustainable,” he added.
“Increment on taxes yearly is only going to increase the burden on the citizens which will eventually reflect on their real wages. I will therefore call on the ministry to start prioritizing the productive ways from the ministries of Agriculture, Education, Tourism, Fisheries. We should really prioritize these sectors so we can graduate from sole depending on taxation for our economy,” he observed.
On GIEPA’s issuance of special investment certificate, he pointed out that these certificates should be given to investors who will invest in the priority sectors of “our” economy with a set value of investment and a proposes set number of employment opportunity to be created.
“We want to know whether at any moment there was an audit of those special investment certificates; whether they have fulfilled their commitment by investing the values as per their proposed business plans and employed the number of individuals proposed,” he asked?
He commended the minister for (MoHERST) Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology for transforming the education system. However, he observed that the education system still does not match the employment industry.
He explained that an individual can go through over 12 years in a system that would not prepare them for a gainful employment.
“I believe the curriculum needs to be lower. Let’s look at the curriculum and see how we ensure that it is skill driven so that by the time you leave grade 12, at least you will be prepared for a job market.”
