ECOWAS STATEMENT ON THE 24 NOVEMBER 2011 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION IN THE GAMBIA

Monday, November 28, 2011 the ECOWAS Commission has informed the President of the Gambia about its decision not to dispatch an ECOWAS Observer Mission to the Presidential Election scheduled to take place in the country on 24 November 2011, because the preparations and political environment for the said election are adjudged by the Commission not to be conducive for the conduct of free, fair and transparent polls.

In keeping with the pertinent provisions of the ECOWAS Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance, the President of the Commission dispatched a fact-finding mission to the Gambia, during which the mission interacted with a wide range of stakeholders to assess the state of preparedness of the country for the election. The Commission has also been conducting a regular monitoring of the political situation and preparations in the lead-up to the election through the ECOWAS Early Warning System.

His Excellency James Victor Gbeho President of the Commission
Unfortunately, the reports of the fact-finding mission and the Early Warning System paint a picture of intimidation, an unacceptable level of control of the electronic media by the party in power, the lack of neutrality of state and para-statal institutions, and an opposition and electorate cowed by repression and intimidation.

In the circumstance, the ECOWAS Commission is of the view that the conditions prevailing in the country do not meet the minimum standards set under the Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance for the conduct of elections and has, therefore, decided to exercise the discretionary powers conferred on the Commission’s President under the Protocol to stand down the ECOWAS Observer Mission.

While regretting the decision forced upon it by the circumstances, the ECOWAS Commission will remain seized with the situation in the Gambia, and expresses its readiness to engage the Government and other stakeholders in the Gambian polity, with a view to accompanying them in their endeavour to create a level playing field for future elections.

Jammeh Re-elected in a Disputed Poll

Tuesday, November 29, 2011 Gambia’s incumbent president Yahya Jammeh on Thursday swept the disputed 2011 presidential poll with an unprecedented landslide victory of 72 percent.

“Having polled 470,550 votes [out of 657, 904 votes cast], I hereby declare Yahya Jammeh, candidate for APRC duly elected as president…” declared IEC chairman on Friday afternoon, triggering a mix feeling of joy and mourning.

Jammeh, who had lost in only one constituency in the 2006 presidential election in which he bagged 67 percent this time defeated his challengers in all the 48 constituencies.
His long time closest rival, Ousainou Darboe of main opposition UDP polled 114,177 votes, representing 17 percent of the votes cast - a massive decline from his 35, 32 and 29 percent in 1996, 2001 and 2006 respectively.

Independent candidate Hamat Bah, who was backed by a coalition of four parties dubbed United Front, polled 73,060 accounting for 11 percent of the total votes cast.
The voter turnout was eighty-three percent, which is still lower than the 1996 and 2001 voter turn out of over 88 and 89 percent respectively, but also above the 2006 voter turn out of 53 percent.

RESULT DISMISSED
However, main opposition UDP led alliance of three parties Friday dismissed the results as ‘bogus and fraudulent.
UDP says the process was flawed, but did not provide details. It however promises to respond to what it calls unacceptable results with appropriate action.

“This fight is not going to be done through war or unrest. We will fight this war intellectually,” UDP campaign manager, Lamin Dibba told a sea of the party’s sympathisers that crowed at Darboe’s pipeline residence even before the final results were counted.
The party and its alliance partners, GMC and PPP urged Gambians and the international community not to validate the results.

The independent candidate and his backers have convened a meeting on Friday, but their position is yet to be known at the time of going to press.
”A final statement will be issued after debriefing the regional coordinators,” he says in a preliminary statement issued during the weekend.

However, firebrand politician Lamin Waa Juwara, who now works as a Governor told U.S based Gambian online newspaper, FREEDOM that the verdict represents the wishes of The Gambian population.
“ The elections were free, fair and transparent. The verdict of the people should be respected,” Mr. Juwara was quoted as saying.
However, Dodou Kassa Jaata, a counting agent for the UDP has walkout from the IEC counting station in Bakau, FREEDOM newspaper reported.

“ I refused to sign the results because there is a fraud. The ruling party had assembled uniform men and women in Bakau under the pretext that they were there to provide security—only for them to vote in Bakau, and other localities. I asked my team to call it a day, and pack,” Mr Jatta was quoted as saying.

THE ECOWAS BOYCOT
Ahead of the poll, ECOWAS said, the vote would not be free or fair because of intimidation by the governing party.
ECOWAS said, the pre-election monitors had found intimidation, a lack of press freedom, a lack of neutrality from state institutions and “an opposition and electorate cowed by repression and intimidation”.

APRC UNDETTERED
Meanwhile, the controversy did not deter the ruling APRC from celebrating its biggest victory since the country’s return to multi party politics following a two year transition from Jammeh led junta that brought a forceful end to Gambia’s founding president Dawda Jawara’s 30 plus year democratic rule.
President-elect Yahya Jammeh was himself at the helm of jubilant affairs at July 22 Square, another symbol of his claimed revolution at the entrance to the capital, Banjul.
“I will not allow the minority to destabilise the country since the majority have decided,” Jammeh told jubilant supporters in a brief statement on Saturday.


Courtsey of the dailynews.gm

FOOD SECUIRTY: A PRIORITY FOR DEVELOPMENT

As the world population reached 700 billion a month ago, governments around the world have considered food a priority for development; thus, they are rocking the boat of how to create a food self-sufficient country. From Kampala to Banjul, the trend is the same: governments are investing millions of Dollars into agricultural productivity.

However, governments cannot not do it alone, this is why the African Network on the Right to Food (ANoRF) -- a pan-African network that is promoting the right to food of good quality in Africa – garnered civil society actors in Banjul, under the theme: Vision and Mechanisms of Networking; Impact on the effectiveness of the right to Food in Africa”, to discuss the trends and synergies of networking to ensure food security in the continent.

FOOD SECURITY: A CAUSE FOR ALARM
ANoRF was formed in 2008 in Cotonou, Benin – where it got the name Reseau Africain Pour Le Droit A L’alimentation (RAPDA) -- and since then the Network has weathered so many storms through the efforts of men and women determined to make African governments to define policies leading to a real food security in their respective countries, Huguette Akplogan-Dossa, regional coordinator of the Network said.

She went on: “The right to food self-sufficiency is part and parcel of human rights, with a political, ethical and social dimension and is considered a priority for development,” adding that to realize of this priority, all stakeholders particularly civil society organizations (non-trading company) need to master networking skills.

She also urged all activists of the right to food in every coalition to mobilise each other for the adoption of the resolutions to stem the tide of hunger in Africa in accordance with the noble mission to fight for effectiveness of the right to food in the continent.

For RAPDA Gambia chapter, the conclave could not have come a better time than now, when policies and strategies to curtail the situation of food insecurity become paramount.
Its coordinator Albert Cox said RAPDA Gambia would continue to work tirelessly for the fulfilment of the aspirations of the people whom they serve and represent in the areas of food security and the right to quality food.

“We remain committed to ensuring that the people of the Gambia and other parts of Africa are empowered to fully participate in the restoration and exploitation of the countries’ natural resources as part of the fulfilment of their right to food – especially quality and affordable food,” he noted.

NEW PAYMENT SYSTEM SET IN TRAIN BY GAMBIA’S APEX BANK

The Central Bank of The Gambia, the parent bank of the thirteen banks in the country, has embarked on modernizing the country’s payments, clearing, and settlement system infrastructures, in a bid to transforming the organism and making it analogous with the world-class standard that obtains in the West.

In briefing reporters recently at the bank’s boardroom in Banjul, Amadou Colley, governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia, said the modernization of the country’s payment system is part of a regional payments system initiative, which forms an integral part of the prerequisites for effective West African monetary integration.

The system, dubbed ‘The new automated cheque processing (ACP/ACH) and the Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS)’, is a development part of the bank’s strategic vision and forms part of a fruitful collaboration with the West African Monetary Institute under the West African Monetary Zone Monetary Integration Programme.

CENTRAL BANK OF THE GAMBIA

Whilst the system will metamorphose the country’s current payment and settlement structures into a world-class standard, it will also help lower costs, make payment and settlement more accurate, and pave the way for increased financial innovations in the country, Hon. Colley says.

The process, which spans across different facets, includes the establishment of the Real Time Gross Settlement System (RTGS), the Automated Cheque Processing/Automated Clearing House (ACP/ACH), Securities Settlement System (SSS) and an electronic National Switch for retail payments.

When the system becomes operational, it will help to eliminate or minimize risks associated with payments, clearing, and settlement system, float size for individual customers and banks as well as significantly reduce the float time for cheque clearance, with the possibility of reducing the clearance time from five days to one day.

This was why Governor Colley, who assumed office less than a year ago, was not hesitant to say that it will also “Pave [the] way for reducing high case intensity and gradual migration to high usage of electronic modes of payment, and bring efficiency to Government receipts and payments and all other consumers and leverage them for financial deepening of the economy”.

The CBG governor continued: “The rationale for the projects is justified by the fact that: The Gambia remains a cash-based economy, with payments of large value transactions requiring heavy movement of cash and its attendant risks; the continued dependence on cash payments also results to delays in cheque processing and inefficiency; and the cost of printing currency is quite high, thus the substitution of banknotes in favour of plastic cards under the National Switch project seeks to alleviate this problem.”

The current modus operandi put in place by the country’s central bank is “time-consuming and less efficient” in averting financial con, and that the delay in confirmation of customer balances due to the lack of real time gross settlement systems results to the acceptance of cheques, which would otherwise be rejected outright.

A VIEW FROM THE CBG

“The Central Bank currently operates a manual cheque clearing system, where commercial banks meet to physically exchange cheques and net balances settled through their current accounts held with the Central Bank, which is time consuming and less efficient in detecting cheque frauds,” Mr Colley said, adding that it will also ensure compliance with international principles and standards, especially the core principles for the Systematically Important Payments Systems (SIPS) of the Bank for International Settlement (BIS) and enhance the Central Bank’s monetary management capabilities.

ELIMINATION OF CHEQUE MOVEMENT

The latest technological innovation at the country’s financial apex body is a milestone feat, as the CBG boss said his institution wishes to harness technology to its advantage.

Governor Colley observed that the applicable technology in the field of finance enables the elimination of cumbersome dependence on physical movement of cheques for clearing purposes.

“It presents the fastest and most secure mode for clearing cheques through digital means and replaces the physical exchange of cheques between the presenting and paying banks. However, the effectiveness of the system depends largely on how users handle cheques,” he pointed.

Under the new system, all cheques payable through the banking system shall comply with specific characteristics, critical among which is the Magnetic Ink Character Recognition (MICR) code.

The MICR represents a unique code, which is inscribed on each cheque leaf, and forms the basis of electronic processing. Once the cheque passes through a scanner, an image is generated, which passes through the system electronically for timely confirmation of customer balances and the immediate payment of beneficiaries where applicable.

THE MAN BEHIND THE WORS: AMADOU COLLEY

Governor Colley also highlighted the remaining challenges as regards the payment system: “However, the scanner cannot capture images of damaged cheques, which may result to processing failure. Cheques may be damaged through writing on the MICR code area, folding of cheques in a form which may prevent its passage through the scanning machine, soiling of cheques with oils, paints or other permanent marks: wear and tear of cheques due to poor storage facilities, stapling of cheques, forgeries aimed at defrauding the system among others.”

All the banks in the country, the CBG governor assures, are however adequately equipped with the means for the implementation of the new measures.

‘POOR WEATHER CONDITION HINDERS GAMBIA’S GDP GROWTH’ - SAYS IMF

The deputy division chief of the African Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), David Dunn, has announced a rather moderate performance of Gambia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) this year, projecting it to have slowed down slightly, to about five and half percent due to poor weather condition, which has hindered crop production in some areas of the country.

David DUNN

“However, comparing this to 2008-2010 performance, the country’s GDP is reported to have grown around six and half percent despite the prolonged global economic crises. The achievement of this robust economic growth was driven mainly by agriculture,” he explained.

Mr Dunn was speaking on Tuesday at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs in Banjul during a press briefing on the 2011 Article IV consultation.

Dunn, who led an IMF mission to the country from 18 October to 1 November 2011 to conduct discussions for the 2011 Article IV consultation, said the 12-month inflation rate has deepened to about four per cent in recent months and is projected to remain below five per cent for 2011 as a whole, while the gross international reserves of the country remain at a comfortable level at just under five months of imports.
However, he pointed out: “The Gambia however continues to face a number of challenges, notably a heavy debt burden.”
Large fiscal deficits in particular have led to a “surge in domestic debt in recent years and most of them consist of short-term T-bills, which must be regularly re-financed”.

“The interest on domestic debt is on the rise and now consumes 18.5% of government revenues, compared to the inclusion of obligation on external debt, which led to the interest consuming twenty-two and half per cent of government revenues,” he said.

To address the high cost and risks of this debt, the government has taken bold actions to curb new domestic borrowing. By strictly controlling spending, new domestic borrowing is on track to be just over two and half per cent of the GDP this year, down from about four and half per cent of GDP last year.

Dunn further commended the Gambia government for observing strict limits on borrowing from the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG), including the elimination of its overdrafts. This, he said, has allowed the CBG to implement a more consistent and proactive monetary policy.

He observed that the CBG lowered its policy interest rate for the first time in 2011, by one percentage point to fourteen per cent. “If inflation remains subdued, there may be scope for further cuts in the policy rate going forward,” he said.

ON FALLING TAX

The IMF official described “falling tax revenues” as a major concern, saying tax revenues (relative to GDP) have fallen steadily since 2007, and are down to less than 12.5% percent in 2011. At the same time, the tax base has eroded substantially, while the remaining taxpayers face high tax rate, he said.
To improve this situation and restore revenues, the IMF mission strongly encourages the government to consider a comprehensive tax reform over the next few years, building upon the planned introduction of a Value Added Tax (VAT), which is due next January 2012.

The mission also recommends that government immediately implement fully its fuel pricing formula, including a specific excise tax and rigorously adhere to the monthly price adjustments going forward.

The mission has observed that The Gambia is making important progress in its fight against poverty, particularly in the areas of education and some health indicators, but progress on “reducing income poverty is also anticipated from the inclusiveness of the strong growth of agriculture in recent years”.

GAMBIA IN A STATE OF ‘HIGH RISK OF DEBT DISTRESS’ IMF SAYS

As the debate on whether the country should hold on to domestic borrowing or external borrowing takes a new dimension, an IMF report has signalled that the country has not been moving on the right track since its “debt sustainability indicators breach a threshold”.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) diligently carried out a ‘Debt Sustainability Analyses (DSA)’ that has cautioned the trend in which the economy and financial system of the country is faring.

The DSA is a formal framework developed by the IMF for conducting public and external debt sustainability analysis as a tool to better detect, prevent, and resolve potential crises. It looks at the evolutions of government debt over the next twenty years and it is based on long-ranged projections of government borrowing needs.

According to David Dunn, Chief of IMF mission to The Gambia, “The Gambia is classified as being high risk of debt distress at the moment based on a debt sustainability analyses by the IMF and WB.”

David Dunn, IMF Mission Chief

The IMF chief was backing a PowerPoint presentation made by his institution at the final validation of the Programme for Accelerated Growth and Employment (PAGE) held at the Kairaba Beach Hotel conference room.

PAGE is The Gambia’s next blueprint that is expected to accelerate growth and employment to sustain the country’s recent socio-economic achievements.

Whilst the DSA identifies various hypothetical shocks in order to ascertain vulnerabilities, it also highlights that the present debt threshold has been contravened by the country – sending a serious alarming risk of debt issue.

“Its [Gambia’s] debt sustainability indicators breach a threshold that signals risk of debt distress – [the] country may face difficulty in servicing its debt.”

He pointed that the year 2006 was better in terms of stability than this year and preceding years. The status quo of the country as regards financial stability is vinegary, saying, “There is revenue crisis in The Gambia.”

Chrsitine Lagarde, IMF Director General

Speaking on the scope of domestic borrowing and whether it is an option for the country; Mr Dunn warns that domestic borrowing is risky and expensive, because the interest rate attached to it is high. He said this year alone there is a tendency that interest rate alone would consume nearly 23% of government’s revenue.

Whilst he said interest rate has been rising since 2009, he observed that short term T-bills pose a larger risk and that majority are less than a year.

However, in order to move on the right track, IMF warns that the country should reduce the cost of domestic debt by gradually reducing government borrowing. It went on to advise that government should “Test the market for long-term securities. Eventually, domestic borrowing could be a viable option.”

“There is revenue crisis in The Gambia. Tax revenue (relative to GDP) has been falling since 2007. The basis is getting narrower and narrower, so tax rates must remain to generate revenue – A vicious circle,” the IMF report highlights.

The report went further to highlight the importance of tax reform for the country, saying “simplification [of taxes], broad base, and low rate” should be taken into consideration.

Mr Dunn puts forthright key recommendations for the year 2012, saying that tax base should be broaden, whilst general sales tax be extended to electricity, and the threshold of income tax be raised.

The tax rate should be kept as low as possible. The simpler the tax, the better authorities are able to execute their duties. “Simplification of taxes would be helpful,” he said.

As a private sector-led economy, the report by IMF and the World Bank did not fail to highlight the importance of the private sector’s participation in easing government’s social reforms burdens. It urges that apposite institutional arrangement should be considered, as the system may help to avoid huge government liabilities. “Proper institutional arrangements are essential to avoid large government liabilities,” Mr Dunn explained, citing the report.

Central Bank of The Gambia

NAWEC must be restructured so that it stands as a financially viable partner. The regulatory body, PURA, should also be strengthened, he observed.

He said that whilst there are “numbers of reforms in the telecommunications sector”, there is still the need to strengthen “competition among service providers”.

ECOBANK EMPLOYEE DRAGGED TO COURT FOR FIDDLING CLIENTS’ ACCOUNTS

The reprehensive acts of a commercial bank teller have been brought to light at a law court, as Lamin Jahateh reports.


Victoria Mendy, a former employee of Ecobank, was on Monday dragged to the Kanifing Magistrates’ Court, presided over by Magistrate Alagba, for allegedly fiddling accounts and squandering funds of customers of the bank.
When the case was called for hearing, one Lamin Sanyang, who identified himself at the court as a resident of Lamin and works at Ecobank Gambia Limited head office on Kairaba Avenue as Head of Operations and Technology.
Mr Sanyang said the fraudulent act took place from 1 August 2010 to 17 January 2011.
He told the court that some time in December 2010, a customer of the bank by the name Francis Hary Faye, complained that there were some unauthorised withdrawals from his account. “It was at this point that Mr Faye, Torres Sarr-Tupan - our legal person, and I had a meeting,” he said.
“At the meeting, Mr Faye told us that Victoria Mendy, our staff, visited his office and confessed that she was messing up with his (Mr Faye’s) account.”
He said further that Mr Faye told Victoria that she was not the one that had messed up with his account but Ecobank.
Mr Sanyang told the court: “It was at this stage I arranged to meet Victoria at Westfield branch and then interrogated her. The interrogation was documented and signed by Victoria and myself. This was on January 4, 2011 - if my memory serves me well. The meeting was witnessed by the Westfield branch manager.”
The interrogation document was tendered at the court and marked as Exhibit A.
Continuing with his testimony, Mr Sanyang said: “It was at that juncture that we were going to forward the case to the police but Victoria Mendy asked us to allow her to call her aunty. After 30 - 45 minutes, the aunty appeared with the husband and they confirmed that Victoria had reported herself to the family and the family was making arrangement to settle the issue by paying the money. We insisted that we were going to report the matter to the police, which we did that very day.”
Mr Sanyang told the court that prior to that they had a disciplinary meeting with Victoria Mendy and she confessed and accepted that she had done wrong.
“What is that,” asked police prosecutor chief inspector Darboe, who wanted to be clear about the crime committed by Victoria. “That was moving funds from customers’ accounts in order to balance her teller tin,” Mr Sanyang responded. “We asked her whether she knew that was not the normal practice of balancing teller tin and she replied in the affirmative but she said she was doing that to help move funds to somebody’s account so that the person could have enough money for visa application, but the person fraudulently withdrew the money.”
He said Victoria was asked by the police to reveal the name of the person, and she disclosed that the person is called Alasan Sumareh.
The police then arranged for Alasan Sumareh to meet them at the fraud squad office. Later on, while at the fraud squad office, Mr Sumareh said Victoria asked him to do a favour of funding or replenishing her teller shortage. However, Mr Sumareh was later exonerated by Victoria at the fraud squad office when she also confessed that Sumareh was actually helping her instead.
“Then following that, we have been receiving series of complaints of the same nature as Mr Hary Faye’s and we also had complaint of deposit suppression which in simple terms means hiding moneys that were given to Victoria for deposit but she never deposited them,” Mr Sanyang explained.
“One example of those complainants came from Kanbeng Kaffo. We had about 15 of this type of complaints; the last one was on 24th August 2011.”
Sanyang told the court that along the line, the internal auditor of the bank carried an investigation on Victoria’s transaction from 15 August 2010 to 6 January 2011. The result of the investigation showed what Ecobank was liable for due to Victoria’s discrepancies, he said, adding that the audit was conducted by the former head of internal audit of the bank, Haruna John, who is no more with the bank.
He explained that Victoria’s case was reported to an agency called Toplink, who brought and recommended her to work for Ecobank.
“The audit report and a letter, prepared by myself through the HR department of the bank, were sent to Toplink,” Sanyang explained.
When asked how Kanbeng Kaffo lodged their complaint to the bank, he said the Kaffo went to the bank to deposit their funds but to their surprise the account was never opened even though they did give the opening cash of the account to the Ecobank Westfield branch, adding that it was indeed given to Victoria who told them the account would be opened later and the money would be deposited there. “Unfortunately the account was never opened,” he said.
He continued: "Then we carried out an investigation by going through our normal withdrawal and deposit procedure and then it was proven beyond doubt that the customer never authorised any withdrawal of funds given to the bank, whilst funds were never deposited to the customer’s account.
“For every single withdrawal it goes with a cheque or deposit ticket or authorised order from the account holder or signatories and in Victoria’s transaction, none of these were there.”
The report of the internal auditor, the letter to Toplink, the letter from Kanbeng Kaffo and the payment made by Ecobank to customers whose funds where tampered with by Victoria, where tendered at the court but the defence council, Barrister Kebba Sanyang, objected to them be marked as exhibits.
He said the documents were all copies, not originals. The prosecutor then withdrew the documents and applied for adjournment.
There was no objection to the application for adjournment so the case was adjourned until 2 November 2010 for the defendant to produce originals of the documents.

Business Gurus Urge Gov’t to Invest in Security, Power Sector

Amat JENG traveled across West Africa and he filed this report

As electricity saga and security threat continue to batter countries around the sub-region; thus making business to move in snail pace, business tycoons and captains of industries have raised concern about the status quo of this country. This situation came as the sub-region has been posited as prone to security peril, as a result of sectarian sadism, arm-robbery and possible uprisings – a melodrama that have gripped the Arab world.

Speaking to our reporter during his two-day stopover in Togo’s capital Lome, Gambian businessmen, who have established large stores in Lome’s market, expressed their concern about the security and power supply system of The Gambia, saying “our government should beef up security in the country and invest in the power sector.”

One of these gurus is Alhagie Kabba, a native of Sabi (URR), who said security should be government’s focused, describing the security apparatus in other countries as bad omen, saying the scenario in the sub-region is terrifying.

Kabba was speaking in version of the cumbersome threat orchestrated by the activities of the Bokom Haram Islamic sect that has imposed fear on Nigeria and its investors, adding that government should leave no stone unturned in the insertion of the possible apparatus to save this country and its people from the scourge of any misdemeanor.

Kabba, who had spent eight years in Lagos, prior to travelling to the United Sates, said: “Security per se is a fundamental outlook for investors in any country.”
He urged the central government not to compromise or downplay with any bustle that will tamper with the peace and tranquility that this country has enjoyed over the centuries.

For him “electricity is a critical economic infrastructure,” which government has a compulsion to look at.

However, in this country’s considerable potential output has been lost due to power cuts in the past few years. If the trend continues, potential losses from power disruption will increase in the future as the economy grows and the relative contributions of the industry and service sectors increase in the economy.

But as the business tycoon observes, power supply must boost as rapidly as demand to circumvent such losses and to ensure sustained growth. “We know development of power infrastructure is capital intensive and thus difficult to finance in capital poor countries like ours, but government should act.”

The Togolese capital been a sub-regional hub for investors and economic hunters, has over the past years witnessed an influx of foreigners, predominantly Gambians. Togo’s largest market where businesses burgeon on daily basis is closer to the seaport and airport; giving investors direct access to the market without much ruckus. The major country dealing with merchants in Lome is China, which serves as a gateway for businesspersons.

But as getting to China is becoming tricky for new entrepreneurs in Lome, due to perceived security, some people are unscrupulously using Gambian passport for easy access to China’s international market.

This situation beckoned the attention of Gambians in Lome, who shared with MarketPlace what they described as “a totally condemn act”.

“We were frustrated when we saw a man arrested with a Gambian passport. More seriously, he does not speak any of the local languages in Gambia. It was later his identity was ascertained, and he was proved a citizen of another English speaking country,” said Alfusainey Touray.

“I think our immigration department should be meticulous about passport issuance, because there are non-Gambians using our identity to cross over borders. We, at our own level, totally condemn it.”

Alfusainey, who established a business in Lome in 2008, said, he is making up his mind seriously to come back and invest in his country. He lamented the social and economic situations of where he is, saying Gambians should really celebrate excellence. “My brother you can see for yourself the demeaning ambience here. In Gambia, we compromise so much the peaceful co-existence we have. Other countries could not get an iota of that compromised-peace.”

Whilst investors in countries like Nigeria are beginning to cry foul the perplexity associated with Goodluck Jonathan’s security machinery, it is high time the Gambia government begins to rationalize tax, beef up security and invest in the power sector in order to grab the attention of these captains of industries.