Kurang Calls Gambia’s 6% Economic Growth a ‘Growth Illusion’ Masking Hardship

By Seedy Jobe

Alhaji Mamadi Kurang, a chartered accountant and member of the United Democratic Party, has challenged the portrayal of The Gambia’s reported 6 percent economic growth as evidence of broad economic progress, arguing that the figure masks persistent hardship among ordinary Gambians.

Speaking in an interview with QTV, Mr. Kurang described the country’s economic performance as a “growth illusion”—an expansion visible in headline statistics but less apparent in household incomes, employment, and food security.

“I wouldn’t say that, because there is this thing that we can refer to as the growth illusion,” Kurang said. “You can have growth, but if you really look behind the numbers, you tend to see something that is not really impressive.”

Mr. Kurang did not dispute the reported growth rate. Instead, he questioned whether the gains reflected in the data were reaching enough Gambians to improve living standards meaningfully.

He pointed to three factors that he said complicated the government’s presentation of the figures: persistent food insecurity, an uneven distribution of economic activity, and the significant role of foreign ownership in some of the country’s most productive sectors.

Agriculture, he said, illustrates the problem. Although the sector employs a large share of the country’s workforce—about 60 percent, according to Mr. Kurang—many of those workers remain underemployed and have seen little benefit from growth elsewhere in the economy.

He also argued that some of the sectors driving economic expansion, including tourism, telecommunications, and banking, are heavily dependent on foreign capital. As a result, he said, a significant share of the profits generated in those industries does not necessarily circulate widely within Gambian households.

In tourism, for example, Mr. Kurang pointed to hotel workers, juice sellers, peanut vendors, and craft traders whose livelihoods depend on the industry but who, he said, have not experienced improvements commensurate with the growth reflected in national statistics.

For Mr. Kurang, the more meaningful measure is whether Gambians themselves feel economically better off.

Rather than focusing solely on the 6 percent figure, he said, policymakers should ask whether households have greater purchasing power, more secure employment, and better access to food than they did five years ago.

Mr. Kurang also raised concerns about population growth, arguing that increases in the number of people sharing the country’s economic output can dilute the effect of overall economic expansion.

“If you have 6% growth, then you go back and check how much the population growth is, and you realize that the Gambia’s real growth is suffering simply because the population growth is outstripping the real growth in the economy,” he said.
He also cited World Bank projections that, he said, point to weaker real growth over the next three years, reinforcing his argument that headline economic expansion should not be treated on its own as proof of improving living conditions.

Mr. Kurang maintained that his criticism was not directed at the accuracy of the economic data itself, but at how the figures were being interpreted and presented to the public.

The central question, he argued, is not simply whether The Gambia’s economy is growing, but who is benefiting from that growth — and whether it is translating into tangible improvements in the daily lives of Gambians.