By Fatou Sillah
Suwaibou Touray, the secretary general of the opposition PDOIS, has said the party believes it alone can resolve The Gambia’s deepening economic difficulties, arguing that the country must pivot away from external dependence toward domestic production and self-reliance.
Speaking in an interview on West Coast Radio, Touray described the national economy as overstretched by years of borrowing and donor reliance and said that this model had left the country vulnerable to external financial constraints.
“We have a government that is bankrupt, a country that is bankrupt,” he said, arguing that successive administrations had leaned too heavily on loans and grants. He pointed to what he said were tightening conditions from international lenders, including the International Monetary Fund, as evidence of shrinking fiscal space.
Touray said The Gambia’s economic structure remained fragile because it was built on debt and external assistance rather than sustained domestic production, a situation he argued had constrained long-term development.
He also criticized government concession agreements involving key infrastructure, questioning whether they served national interests. Referring to the management of the port, he said, “They went ahead and handed over our port to Al Bayrak and then expect Al Bayrak to operate it and just give a token of revenue back to the country.”
Touray further argued that the economy had become increasingly reliant on remittances from Gambians abroad, while productive sectors remained underdeveloped. He said tourism, once a major foreign exchange earner, had yet to fully recover from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“The tourism sector is more or less collapsed since COVID-19, and right now the only major support we have is remittances coming from Gambians abroad,” he said.
Outlining what he described as an alternative economic path, Touray called for renewed investment in agriculture, fisheries, and small-scale industry, sectors he said could reduce import dependence and strengthen food security.
“We need a new way of doing things,” he said, adding that such a shift “can only be offered by PDOIS” because of its focus on production and self-reliance.
He argued that greater domestic production of staple foods and fisheries development would help stabilize prices and generate employment, particularly for young people and women. “We are spending billions importing food that we can actually produce here,” he said, citing rice, corn, and fish as key examples of untapped domestic capacity.
“If we invest properly in production, we will create employment for our youth and women, reduce imports, stabilize prices, and build a stronger economy for everyone,” he said.
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