Abdoul Aziz Ceesay made this disclosure in the ongoing 2025 Nafa Cash Transfer project being delivered by NaNA in partnership with the Department of Community Development (DCD) and the Directorate of Social Welfare (DSW).
The project, which is an initiative of Gambia RISE Nafa programme, is a combination of Cash Transfer and Social and Behavioral Change Communication (SBCC) currently being rolled out in 20 rural poorest districts.
The bi-monthly Cash Transfer to beneficiaries in all districts is under component 3 of the World Bank project which is funded by the World Bank to the tune of US$40, 500, 000.
In an interview with journalists at Ngage village, Upper Saloum, CRR-North over the weekend, Director Ceesay revealed that to effectively address malnutrition and poverty in the country, there is need for collective efforts, including the media, the private sector, government, Civil Societies and the NGOs.
He stated that as part of the ongoing Nafa programme, they started with the SBCC aspect before distributing the cash to beneficiaries, which has been regarded as sustainable as far as reaching out to beneficiaries.
“The money is not the ends and means of everything, what we want is to change behavior and remember we are dealing with the extreme poor households in this country and every project must come to an end.”
“So, building their resilience involves having these SBCC sessions with them so that when the project phases out, some of them would have already started savings and doing some microfinance activities that will increase the revenue base of their households to put food on the table with a diversified diet to improve the health and nutrition status of their people which is very critical for me, because I want the sustainability of the project.”
Ceesay indicated that as far as the Nafa project is concerned, the overall objective is to reduce malnutrition in the country, which is an essential pillar in the existence of NaNA, as an institution tasked with coordinating nutrition and its related activities in the country.
He thus encouraged beneficiaries to also venture into gardening to enable them put food on the table for sustainability.
Meanwhile, this medium has been reliably informed that NaNA and partners are currently in various regions reaching out to extremely poor households, who are under the Cash Transfer program where they have already disbursed D6, 675, 000 and still still counting.
