The minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Mambury Njie Friday presented the 2012 Budget to the National Assembly.

According to the Finance minister, the 2012 budget was prepared on the basis of key macroeconomic assumption; to sustain real GDP at 5.5%, inflation at 5% and with the overall budget deficit projected at 3%, and with the current account balance excluding budget support projected at 15.3%. Mambury Njie said despite the recent global economic crisis, the Gambia economy has managed to consistently register and sustain significant growth with low inflation over the past three years. According to him, government will continue in its quest to accelerate growth and reduce poverty, by promoting inclusive growth to create opportunities for its citizens. He revealed further that government will also negotiate a new three-year Enhanced Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) board by early next year.

On the productive sectors
The Finance minister reported that the government’s spending target for the productive sectors of the country in the coming year stands to be positive, saying that the government has tasked herself a vision for the agricultural sector like others to transform The Gambia into a major supplier of agricultural products to local and international markets between 2012 and 2015. To ensure that it achieves this, he said the government intends to increase food security and boost the income generating capacity and the nutritional status of farmers, especially women and youths, transform the agricultural sector from traditional subsistence economy to a modern market-oriented commercial sector, increase and sustain agricultural production and productivity through all-year-round irrigation, and enhance beneficiaries’ productive capacity through supervision, coordination, regulation and advice.

Fisheries and water resources
This, sector like others, according to Minister Njie also continues to implement development projects and programmes aimed at achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and Vision 2020 through effective and sustainable management of fisheries resources. He used the opportunity to inform the gathering of the construction stage of the fisheries jetty in Banjul. He said work at this site is advancing progressively and expected to be operational by early 2012. “This project when completed will enable licensed industrial fishing vessels to land their catches in The Gambia, that will also create employment, increase fish landings and enable local fishing companies to operate at full capacity,” he explained.

Forestry and Environment
Giving the positive highlights of the achievement in the forestry and environment sector, the Finance minister intimated that the Gambia with support from FAO and other development partners developed and implemented the first policy and legislation in Africa to provide local populations with secured and permanent forest ownership rights. “Transferring forest tenure from state ownership to management by local communities has significantly contributed to the reduction of illegal logging and forest fires. It has enabled a slowdown in the rate of desertification and enhances the benefits from using the forest products,” Minister Njie added.

Tourism
Despite domestic and international challenges in the tourism sector, the Finance minister commended the Tourism and Culture Ministry for the progress being done in that sector. He justified his assertion by citing the resumption of Condor Airline services to The Gambia, an airline that suspended operation in Banjul some five years ago.

Trade
On the Trade Ministry , the Finance minister revealed that a competitiveness and diversification project has already been submitted to the Enhance Integrated Framework (EIF) and is awaiting approval. He said the same project has procured standard equipment for the weights and measures bureau to help them expand their work of monitoring the use of proper measurement of goods.

Telecommunication
Minister Njie stated that, the telecommunication sector like other sectors would also in 2012 embark on series of development programmes. According to him, the government under the Ecowas project has secured financing from the Islamic Development Bank (ADB) to the tune of US$27.32 million for the modernisation and expansion of the national telecommunications infrastructure. He said: “This project will address critical connectivity gaps by extending communications and internet services and provide regional e-governance platform for interconnecting Ecowas local offices, member states and the institution.”

Works, Construction & Infrastructure
The APRC government since assuming power, hewent on has made and continued to register substantial progress in the road sector. This has been manifested through the rehabilitation of the two major heavily-used trunk roads being the south bank and the north bank. The Finance minister disclosed that feasibility study and detailed design for the construction of Lamin koto-Passimass road has already been conducted and the works are expected to kick-off in 2012. He informed the gathering that funds have already been secured for the construction of Brikama-Marakisa-Darsilame and Dimbaya road and work is expected to commence by March next year.

Human capital development
A continuous teacher training has been prioritised on the human capital development aspect of the 2012 budget with a view to improving their (teachers) pedagogical skills sufficient to cope with the demands of such strategies of double shifting of teachers and the employment of multi-grading teaching will be vigorously pursued in 2012.
In the higher education sector, the Finance minister noted that so far, huge success has been registered and it has outlined three programmes as its medium-term plan for the period of witnessing the implementation of Programme for Accelerated Growth and Employment, which have also been carefully aligned with the ongoing programmes; the civil works at Kanilai Institute of Science and Technology which is almost completed

Health
Apart from education, health sector tops the government’s 2012 spending, accounting for 12.7% of the budget, foreign affairs 11.15%, agriculture 2.9% and tourism 0.36.

Fiscal outlook for the year 2012
The fiscal outlook for 2012 marks the beginning of the PAGE implementation, the successor programme of PRSP II, expected to be funded by domestic resources, traditional donors, and non-traditional donors.

Revenue
The total revenue and grants for 2012 is projected at D5771.3 million (17.6% of GDP) as against a total of D5650.2 million (17.8%) of GDP a year earlier. Tax revenue is forecasted at D4613.9 million in 2012 increasing by D23.6 million from its previous year level of D4590.3 million.

Expenditure
The 2012 total expenditure and net lending is projected at D6722.8 million, increased by D606.3 million from its 2011 level. This, according to the Finance minister is mainly due to higher than expected increase in external resources.

Revenue measures
In the course of the year, according to the Finance minister, the government in its efforts to mobilised resources will introduce measures to help boost its revenue gear towards the funding of development programmes. Minister Njie ended by highlighting the government’s plans to accelerate its investment in the growth enhancing sectors such as agriculture, tourism and infrastructure. “The government has also embarked on a series of public sector reforms such as the introduction of the Value Added Tax (VAT) in 2013 and deepened Procurement Reforms” he said.He explained that the reform, when instituted, would broaden the revenue base and thus improve revenue mobilisation.

Reactions
Hon. Momodou Sellu Bah, the National Assembly for Basse who seconded the bill commended the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs for what he described as a documented budget. Hon. Bah singled out the agriculture sector amongst other sectors as one very important sector, which he said has been prioritised in the 2012 Budget. Shortly after presenting the budget, our reporters sounded the opinion of the majority and minority leaders on the budget.

Fabakary Tombong Jatta, majority leader and NAM for Serekunda East said: “2011 has been a very difficult year in terms of maximising revenue. We have been told that we had serious revenue deficit during the course of the year and the government is doing a lot of restructuring in both taxation and collection of revenues with a view to filling of this gap.” He said the most interesting thing is that with all those shortfalls the government was able to sail through without the possible repercussions on the average citizen. He added: “I think that is a job well done. I felt great that we have the capacity and the technical management necessary to handle the affairs of the very difficult circumstances but the budgetary proposals for 2012 are realistic in the sense that from the revenue estimates themselves are very objective with no alarming figures to project revenue collected for 2012. They were very realistic bearing in mind on the actual of the previous year.”

Hon. Momodou L.K Sanneh, the Minority leader and National Assembly Member for Kiang West described the 2012 budget as a show of great increase in allocation. He cited agriculture as one of the main areas deeply touched in the 2012 budget saying it is the backbone of this country as 70 to 77% of the population are farmers. He then stated that if what has been said in the budget is implemented, it will be vital to the country’s development. He advised that there be a policy direction and programme to work in the sector otherwise it will fail.