If all goes as planned, The Gambia will soon stop importing chicken legs, the deputy speaker of the National Assembly on Wednesday told the House, while seconding a motion on the laying of the report on ‘All African Parliamentary Conference’ held in Ethiopia, Addis Ababa.

The motion was laid before the deputies by Hon. Mam Cherno Jallow, National Assembly member for Upper Niumi. She disclosed that since the launch of the Federation of Gambian Women, it has registered three companies; Oil Refining Company, Foam Company and the General Merchandise. She further disclosed that the Federation is also in the process of partnering with EMPAS, and that in the next 45 days, a 40-foot container of meat would arrive in the country to be sold at competitive and very cheap prices.“The Gambian women would very soon move from that status of engaging only in the micro-enterprise business to import and export trade,” said Hon. Mbaye, while thanking President Jammeh for the initiative of establishing the Gambia Women’s Federation.

The deputy speaker however noted that even though they [women] are gallant in moving forward to attain most of the MDGs, they should not remain complacent. She also pointed out that 2015 is very close, and that they can only be successful if there is a vibrant public/private partnership including their development partners, the civil society and non-governmental organisations, and of course the Gambian people.

She expressed confidence in their ability to accelerate the attainment of the MDGs with the development of the Programme for Accelerated Growth and Employment (PAGE) being the successor of the PRSP II. She used the platform to highlight the stand of participants at the ‘All African Parliamentary Conference’ -that the achievement of MDGs has to become the parliamentary responsibility and a legislative priority.

She continued: “As parliamentarians, we are the representatives and voice of Africa. We enact laws, approve budgets and conduct oversight functions and there is no other medium that anyone can use to accelerate the attainment of the MDGs that would be bettered by the ones that I have mentioned.”

Hon. Mbaye also appealed to the various committees of the house to be vibrant and proactive in their approach to perform their oversight functions. “We can attain the objectives of taking steps in the progress made, identifying gaps and constraints and do not only stop at that, but once the gaps and constraints are identified, we should be able to enact laws consistent with our development agenda, that would serve as the basis for the development of strategies and also to identify activities that would help the acceleration of the MDGs,” she further stated.

She added: “We Gambia women cannot thank the president enough for what he has done for us in attaining parity in education and that very soon Gambia would be able to boast of free and compulsory education.”