By: Sainabou Sambou
The annual Stake of the Nation forum, now in its eighth edition and organized by MSDG, has reported that remittances from the Gambian diaspora have exceeded $775.6 million in 2024.
According to an official from the Central Bank of the Gambia, this represents a notable increase of $28.8 million compared to the previous year.
Remittances from abroad continue to play a crucial role in the country’s economy, contributing over 31.5% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). This year’s Stake of the Nation event focused on the theme “Diaspora, Jobs, and Financing for Development,” highlighting the Gambian diaspora’s significant economic impact and potential for national development.
On behalf of the President, the Vice President of the Gambia presided over the Eight Stakes in the Nation Forum on Saturday, January 11, 2024, at the Sir Dawda International Conference Centre in Bijilo.
Speaking at the event, the vice president of the Gambia, Muhammed B.S. Jallow, said that on September 23, 2017, President Barrow announced the Gambia’s first-ever diaspora policy at a town hall meeting in New York. He declared December 15 to January 14 the Gambia Diaspora Month.
“In the past eight years, this period witnessed a joyous celebration of homecoming, a full calendar of diaspora engagements, and a noticeable boost in diaspora tourism and the many benefits it brings to the local economy and the cultural industries,” he stated.
VP Jallow said that in May 2024, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published an article recognizing The Gambia’s leadership in this field. We now invite our development partners to support the Fourth Phase of the MSDG Project, which will run for five years from July 2024 to June 2029.
He disclosed that: “2025 is the year that the United Nations convenes the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4), to
be held in Seville, Spain between June 30 and July 3, 2025. The outcome document will replace the 2015 Addis Ababa Action Agenda as the global framework on development finance. The role of diaspora and innovative finance must be prominent in the consultations, proceedings, content, recommendations, and commitments of FFD4.”
“The Gambia has dedicated the Eighth Stake in the Nation Forum (SNF8) to the theme ‘Diaspora, Jobs and the Financing for Development’ theme. In line with our Diaspora Policy and the strategy and work plans of the Gambia Diaspora and Migration Directorate (GDMD), the government will continue to champion innovations in diaspora investment and development. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, MSDG piloted a Diaspora Development Fund (DDF),” he stated.
He revealed that the last audited results in June 2024, half a million Euros in cash, equivalent to 37 million dalasi, were awarded as grants to 74 projects. ‘Professionals led these projects from the diaspora who worked with local partners in rural and urban Gambia. The projects, in turn, generated four million Euros, equivalent to 295 million dalasi, through cash and in-kind co-finance from the diaspora, government, and other partners.’
Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Cooperation, and Gambians Abroad Mamadou Tangara, in delivering his statement, said the initiative symbolizes the enduring bond between the diaspora and the homeland and also reaffirms the recognition of the diaspora as the eighth region of the Gambia, a historic declaration made by President Barrow in 2018 and enshrined in the fourth pillar of the recovery focus, the national development plan, NDP, 2023 to 2027.
“It is a solemn commitment to make the diaspora an integral part of our national development strategy. It acknowledges the diaspora as not only contributors of remittances but also as a source of invaluable expertise, innovation, and global networks that can serve as catalysts for transformative care, and I always say that even beyond the Gambia, the mud, talked about African Renaissance cannot happen without the diaspora,” said Vice president Jallow.
He added that the forum also intends to outline the implementation of diaspora and innovative finance initiatives, ethical migrant labor programs, action points on diaspora jobs, and development financing.
Mr. Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie, MBE Pioneer of Global Diaspora Development and Practice, Co-Founder of AFFORD (UK), and Country Director of International Growth Center (IG ) Sierra Leone, congratulated the Government of the Gambia.
According to him, it is worth noting that what you are doing in the Gambia is not necessarily practiced in other African countries.
He said that overseas development assistance is declining. ‘Today, the major donor countries spend about 14- 13% of their overseas development corporations in their countries dealing with crises like the refugee crisis in Ukraine. So, we must recognize that, as Africans, we must take responsibility for our development.’
“One of the tasks, and I would like to put this on the floor of Professor Faal and his team, is for us to begin to measure the other contributions to have a more realistic and holistic measure of this contribution. When we do that, we will find that we are already our own greatest aid donors,” he stated.
He also disclosed that the dialogue between the diaspora, the government, and the other stakeholders is critical.
