The initiative courtesy of the National Nutrition Agency (NaNA), will allow beneficiaries of the remaining 17 districts receive their bi-monthly cash transfer of D3000 with the Social and Behavioural Change Communication (SBCC) as part of their 18th and last payment by January 2026.
Current beneficiaries of the 17th cycle include 169 beneficiaries from four communities paid at Nioro Jataba in Kiang; 49 beneficiaries at Sibeto village, Kiang Central and 85 beneficiaries in Balangharr Kharfubi, Central River Region-North.
The Nafa cash transfer program is jointly funded by the World Bank and the Government of The Gambia and is a key subcomponent of the RISE Project, which is designed to alleviate poverty and empower extreme poor households through regular cash transfers and SBCC engagements.
Moreover, the project will equally roll out to the remaining sixteen districts with new 15, 000 beneficiaries that were not benefiting from the cash transfer.
Speaking to reporters at Ballanghar Kharfubi, CRR-North, Fatou Drammeh, senior program officer under the SBCC at the National Nutrition Agency, outlined that the Social and Behavioural Change Communication will continue at community levels through structures with the Inter-Personal Communication Networks (IPC) after the 18th payment cycle due in January 2026.
She noted that they want to ensure that beneficiaries get all the necessary information needed because they are the ones at the extreme poor status to move them to a higher level at the end of the project.
The project, she added, is aimed at improving the livelihood of beneficiaries through various aspects, including entrepreneurship and financial literacy for sustainability.
At Niorro Jataba village, Sainey Camara, nutrition field officer for Lower River Region under NaNA, said that the disbursement programme is one of the major components of the Nafa intervention under the Gambia RISE Project.
The Nafa project, he added, is a component that looks at supporting vulnerable households in bi-monthly disbursement programs, which is done from various processes which include the collection of household data across the country and run through a test to ascertain the vulnerability of households.
In light of this, he said households are identified for support under the Nafa program, saying along the disbursement process, beneficiaries are taken through various SBCC modules, including health, gender-based violence, early childhood development, entrepreneurship and financial literacy.
Highlighting the project impacts to beneficiaries, Fabakary Bass, nutrition field coordinator responsible for field activities and field officers under the National Nutrition Agency, acknowledged that there have been positive responses from beneficiaries on how they utilised the funds they received from the Nafa program.
