“This means that even the newly born child carries a debt burden of 38,000 dalasi. “If a newly born Gambian child carries a burden of 38,000 dalasi, how are we going to solve that problem,” he quizzed rhetorically.
Hon. Sallah made these remarks on Tuesday at a press conference held at the Foroyaa Conference room following the party’s Central Committee inaugural meeting the under the theme: ‘Restructuring PDOIS for a Just and Smart Government and Beginning the Final Battle Against Ignorance and Poverty’ on the 24th of April 2021.
He added that if PDOIS comes to power, they will create a cooperative bank out of the sovereign wealth of the land that will flow our waters and ensure more wealth in our pockets and earn more foreign exchange.
According to him, the country spends D4 billion in terms of importation of rice when the country has all the land to be able to cultivate abundant rice, while assuring that his party will eradicate poverty in the country if elected in the upcoming presidential elections.
“We only lack the resources to be able to do that,” Sallah said. “We have money that we can send to the farming communities, give them fertilisers, seeds and farming equipment they need to produce abundant rice for the country,” he noted.
He added the D4 billion dalasis that the country spends on importing rice can be invested in the country through agriculture that will provide abundant rice without importing. “This is what is called Import Substitution,” he disclosed.
He added that if investment is made on the agricultural lands we have, the country will develop without importing rice and spending billions of dalasis. For that reason, his party would make sure rice is cultivated here and the money will remain here as well.
“If we want to end poverty in this country, we must invest in agriculture and supply the farmers with the necessary farming implements they need, which will provide abundant rice for this country without depending on rice importation,” he argued.
The PDOIS leader further revealed that development is about knowledge and study but not initiation and readymade.
