The French Embassy in Banjul has announced the formalisation of a two million euros budget support to The Gambia.
France was one of the EU countries that pledged to help bring The Gambia’s economy out of the woods after a donor conference in Brussels in 2018.
Finance minister Mambury Njie and Alexandre POINTIER, the French Development Agency (AFD) Regional Director for Senegal, The Gambia, Cabo Verde and Guinea Bissau today signed a pact formalizing a 2 million euros budget support to The Gambia.
A statement from the French Embassy said: “Further to the 2017 democratic transition in The Gambia, the Government of France has expressed its willingness to work toward the renovation of its diplomatic and economic relations with the country. During the International donor Conference for The Gambia in Brussels in May 2018, France pledged to contribute to the economic stabilization of the country and to support the implementation of the National Development Plan with 50 Million euros to be disbursed over 2018-2021.
“The financing agreement signed today between AFD and the Government of The Gambia is a second budget support operation and it comes in addition to the pledge made at the Brussels conference. In 2018, the French Government granted a 5 Million euros budget support to sustain the macroeconomic stabilization of the country and to ease the transition towards an IMF-financed program.
“The purpose of this second operation is to safeguard poverty-reducing spending and to support efforts by the government of The Gambia to restore fiscal balance. As such, it will both seek to safeguard poverty-reduction expenditures and alleviate the government’s financing gap.
“As expressed in the Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Republic of The Gambia and the French Development Agency on November 5th, 2018, in the presence of Mr. Jean-Yves LE DRIAN, Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs, it is expected that AFD and The Gambia will increase their cooperation. In the short-term, it is up to 26.5 Million euros programs that will be implemented, in addition to budget support, in the areas of agriculture to increase food sufficiency, and access to water in urban areas to support sustainable public services development.”
