By: Momodou S Gagigo
The National Food Security Processing and Marketing Corporation (NFSPMC) on Friday launched motorized groundnut screening machines and Point-of-Sale (POS) devices in a landmark move to modernize the country’s vital groundnut value chain.
The colorful ceremony, held at NFSPMC headquarters in Banjul, was attended by senior government officials, regional Secco presidents, farmer cooperatives, and hundreds of producers who gathered to witness what many described as the beginning of a new era for Gambian agriculture.
Speaking at the event, NFSPMC Managing Director Muhammad Njie declared the initiative a turning point for the sector. “Our mandate extends far beyond buying and selling produce. We are here to transform the entire infrastructure – from farm gate to market – so that Gambian groundnuts can compete globally while farmers earn more and lose less,” he said.
The motorized screening machines, destined for strategic seccos across the country, will replace manual sieving, drastically cutting post-harvest losses that sometimes exceed 20 percent and ensuring cleaner, better-graded nuts that fetch higher prices. “For the first time, quality control starts at the village level rather than after the produce reaches depots,” Njie explained.
Equally groundbreaking is the nationwide rollout of POS devices that will digitize all farmer payments starting this buying season. The cashless system is expected to eliminate risks associated with handling large sums of money in rural areas, speed up transactions, and create an auditable trail that boosts transparency.
“This is financial inclusion in action,” Njie noted, revealing that NFSPMC has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Wave The Gambia, the country’s fastest-growing mobile money platform, to facilitate instant, fee-free transfers directly into farmers’ digital wallets.
Njie thanked Minister of Agriculture Demba Sabally for his “unwavering leadership,” Secco leadership for their partnership, and farmers for their resilience. “These machines and devices belong to you. Without your sweat, there is no groundnut sector and no food on Gambian tables,” he told the cheering crowd.
He urged users to handle the equipment responsibly and announced an intensive training program to ensure smooth adoption and proper maintenance.
The launch signals The Gambia’s broader push toward mechanization and digital agriculture under the National Development Plan. With groundnuts remaining the country’s top agricultural export and a lifeline for over 200,000 rural households, Friday’s initiative is widely seen as a decisive step toward higher incomes, reduced poverty, and a more competitive farming economy.
As the ceremony closed beneath the afternoon sun, farmers posed for photographs with the gleaming new machines – a powerful symbol that Gambia’s groundnut sector has firmly entered the digital era.
