President Adama Barrow of the Gambia will Monday use the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London to lay out his vision for the country’s future and the policies he is pursuing to achieve it.
Mr Barrow who assumed power in 2017, is facing immense challenges. His government inherited a faltering economy and 120 per cent debt to GDP ratio from his predecessor. And with his coalition government becoming increasingly divided, Mr Barrow will use the meeting in London to spell out how he intends reshape the Gambia’s future by building a path to sustainable progress.
The Gambia has seen a number of positive changes in the first year of President Adama Barrow’s presidency, whose election in December 2016 ended 23 years of authoritarian rule by Yahyah Jammeh. Political prisoners have been released, a new chief justice of the Supreme Court has been appointed, the executive secretary of the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission was sworn in on 1 March 2018, and the IMF projected growth at 3 per cent in 2017 (up from 1.6 per cent in 2016).
