By Mama A. Touray
In the face of significant criticism regarding the 2025 budget estimate presented to the National Assembly by the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Seedia Keita, the Minister of Information, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay has described the budget as ‘almost balanced’.
Despite the budget being tabled late before the National Assembly, Dr. Ceesay stated in an interview on West Coast Radio’s Coffee Time programme that the budget should be viewed in a broader context.
“Let’s look at the budget in a bigger picture, for the first time in ten years the budget deficit is 0.1% of GDP. [That] is nearly a balanced budget. Normally, we talk about the budget deficit that is our cost far outweighs what we expect in revenue”.
Ceesay further emphasized that “for the first time in over a decade, the Minister of Finance and the Government of The Gambia have really exercised prudent fiscal gymnastics in the sense that now we have 0.1% of GDP, almost D198 million is the deficit. That is almost a balanced budget”.
“Within the European Union, they aim for at least a 4 to 5 per cent; that is what is accepted of a budget deficit of a GDP. In The Gambia here, we are doing 0.1% and the overall budget is 52 billion dalasi for 2025. Thirty-seven billion is government local fund and the rest will be sourced through loans and grants”.
Dr. Ceesay argued that the 2025 budget focuses more on output than input, saying: “This budget is a pilot called the program-based budgeting, [and] that is to say it focuses more on outputs than inputs. While inputs include fuel and operational aspects such as vehicles, the focus is primarily on outputs like social services, healthcare services, and education.”
He added that the Government is aligning NDA’s budget to the national development plan so that they can focus more on output than inputs.
Regarding the estimated GDP, he stated, “we are expecting that The Gambia’s GDP to grow by 6% in 2025, up from 5.2%, and inflation has decreased from 18% to 9%. The Central Bank’s mid-term target is 5%. This is a huge economic success considering global trends across the world.”
