Speaking on Saturday at the United Democratic Party’s 30th anniversary celebration at Brikama SSP, Lowe said women working in gardens and markets often depend on electricity to preserve tomatoes and other perishable produce.
She said repeated power cuts can leave women with no option but to watch their goods spoil, resulting in losses for small-scale traders and farmers who depend on their businesses for income.
Lowe also linked the electricity crisis to the education of children, arguing that students cannot study effectively when households are left without power at night.
She challenged attempts to place poor academic performance mainly on teachers, saying the wider conditions children face must also be considered.
“When households are left without electricity at night, children cannot study effectively,” Lowe argued.
The Banjul mayor said the challenges facing women go beyond electricity and called for greater economic opportunities for them, particularly through public procurement.
She said women currently account for only a small proportion of those benefiting from procurement opportunities and urged them to use their votes to demand a greater share of the country’s economic resources.
Lowe also turned her attention to agriculture, citing delays in payments to farmers in Jokadou as an example of what she described as shortcomings in the government’s handling of the sector.
She said farming could become a major source of wealth for Gambians if farmers were provided with modern machinery, financing and other necessary resources.
The mayor used the UDP’s 30th anniversary celebration to pay tribute to women who helped build the party, including Soffie Conteh, Sukai Dahaba, Nogoi Njie and Ramou Jallow.
She said some of the party’s pioneering women may not live to see the UDP form a government but had helped create a path for a new generation to continue the struggle.
Lowe expressed confidence in the party’s electoral prospects, predicting that UDP leader ANM Ousainu Darboe and his coalition partners would win the presidential election.
“On the 5th of December, Darboe will be declared the winner,” she told supporters.
She ended by urging women and UDP supporters to remain calm, united and focused as the party moves towards the election.
