Author: Edrissa Jallow

By Edrissa Jallow, @EdrissaJallow10. The United Democratic Party (UDP) Campaign Manager, Momodou Sabally, has labelled President Adama Barrow’s Commission of Inquiry into Local Governments and Councils a major abuse of state resources, with the 2023 Local Government Elections around the corner. The firebrand Politician of arguably The Gambia’s biggest opposition party who was recently arrested and eventually released without charge, did not hold back in his condemnation of the newly announced Commission of Inquiry. Mr Sabally declared his unreserved resentment at a stakeholder dialogue organised by pro-fiscal transparency organisation Gambia Participates, focusing on “sanctioning the abuse of state resources”. In…

By Edrissa Jallow, @EdrissaJallow10 The Chairperson of Parliament’s Select Committee on Gender, Children and Social Welfare, Hon Fatoumatta Njai has called on stakeholders to collaborate to advocate and pass a Bill to increase women’s representation. Hon Njai, an Independent member of Banjul South also revealed that her Committee plans to table a “Women’s Representation Bill” in the future. The Bill aims to provide reserved seats for only women to contest elections to the National Assembly. Hon Njai made these remarks on Friday 10th February 2023, during the opening ceremony of a Policy Dialogue engagement organised by the Westminster Foundation for…

By Edrissa Jallow, @EdrissaJallow10 The Baldeh Family Real Estate based in the United States have signed a mega international deal with TAF Africa Global to provide affordable homes to customers in the US and Africa on 24th January 2023. The partnership was signed shortly after a tour of the newly constructed TAF City. Our reporter spoke to Demba Baldeh and TAF General Manager, Ya Bajen Njie to get a better understanding of this new partnership. Baldeh Family is a family-owned real estate business first established in the United States in 2009 selling commercial and residential properties. Speaking to Mr Baldeh…

By Edrissa Jallow, @EdrissaJallow10 The Gambia’s National Audit Office (NAO) and the African Organisation of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI-E) organised a joint week-long multi-stakeholder consultative workshop focusing on the Accountability of Extractive Industries in The Gambia. Starting on Monday 30th January 2023 at the SeneGambia Beach hotel, the event saw participants fly in from South Africa, Norway, Malawi and Uganda to name a few. One of the main aims of the workshop is to complete the “finalization of the draft risk assessment matrix developed by the NAO for the identification of possible audit areas in the Extractive Industries sector”.…

By Edrissa Jallow, @EdrissaJallow10 Last week, 17th January 2023 marked one year since Journalists Pa Modou Faal and Musa Ndow lost their lives. Our reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Pa Modou’s widow, Mariama Jallow Faal who told our reporter that her husband’s death has made life difficult for the family. The two journalists, including a health worker named Kawsu Bayo, died in a fatal car crash in Jarra in the Lower River Region (LRR) while returning from official duty on Monday 17th January 2022. “His absence created an irreplaceable void in our lives. Pa was a father who was…

By Edrissa Jallow, @EdrissaJallow10 President Adama Barrow has declared a seven-day national mourning following the death of Vice President Alieu Badara Joof effective yesterday 18th January 2023. The seven days are expected to expire on Tuesday 24th January 2023. VP Joof, was reported to have died on Wednesday 18th January 2023 at the age of 65, served as the Minister of Higher Education Research, Science and Technology from 22nd February 2017 to 4th May 2022. On the same day 4th May 2022, President Barrow promoted him as the Vice President of The Gambia until his demise. “In memory of the…

By Edrissa Jallow and Yusef Taylor The Sixth Stake in the Nation Forum (SNF) brought together Officials from the Gambia Government, Gambians from the Diaspora and the donor community on Saturday 14th January 2023 in what has become an annual gathering to take stock of Diaspora contributions towards National Development. This year’s event took place at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Center in Bijilo. The theme for the Sixth SNF focused on “Supporting Private Action for Public Benefit”. Spearheaded by GK Partners and the Migration and Sustainable Development in the Gambia (MSDG) Project, this year’s event highlighted that…

By Edrissa Jallow, @EdrissaJallow10 The Hansard department is a key element of the National Assembly, archiving all the plenary sessions verbatim. The Director of the Gambia’s Hansard Department, Ms Isatou Gassama shared some of the challenges that her department is currently faced with on the sidelines of a training organised by Westminster Foundation for Democracy (WFD) on 12th January 2023. According to Ms Gassama, despite the Hansard Unit having only ten staff of which three are editors and seven are transcribers, challenges remain due to a lack of the required Human and Technical resources. “If you compare the fifty-eight NAMs…

By Edrissa Jallow, @EdrissaJallow10 The President of the Republic of Senegal, Macky Sall has announced in a tweet that the country will observe a three-day mourning for the death of over thirty-nine people on Sunday 8th January 2022. The unfortunate incident believed to be the deadliest bus crash in the country occurred in the central part of Senegal, Gniby some kilometres from Kaffrine. President Sall took to social media to express his sincere condolences to the bereaved families and to declare three days of national mourning from Monday 9th to Wednesday 11th January 2022. Yesterday 8th January 2022, Senegal woke…

By Edrissa Jallow, @EdrissaJallow10 The current party leader of Citizens’ Alliance (CA), Dr Ismaila Ceesay is set to continue as party leader for the rest of his two-year term as no elections were held during its two-day national congress. Newly appointed Senior Administrator, Mr Carayol also disclosed that over D1.6 million had been spent by the party from 2020 to 2022. The two-day congress was held on the 29th and 30th of December 2022 at Paradise Suites Hotel. The Acting Deputy Secretary General, Alpha MK Lowe disclosed that CA didn’t hold an election during the congress but rather appointed a…