Officials from the International Monetary Fund, yesterday, called on Fatoumata Jahumpa-Ceesay, speaker of the National Assembly, at her office in Banjul.

Speaking to reporters after a close door meeting with the speaker and the members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of the National Assembly, Robert Powell, deputy division chief at the African Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Office in Washington , said the meeting is also part of their week-long visit in the country. He said they are in the country to see the environment in which IMF support programmes are running in terms of what the economy is bringing to the wider world, specifically on how the program has performed in the last six months.

According to him, during the period of their visit, they had meetings with the Department of State for Finance and Economic Affairs and the Central Bank. He expressed hope that by the end of the visit they would know the status of the programmes. Describing the meeting with the Gambian speaker as successful and encouraging, he said that during the meeting they discussed issues of interest to the Monetary Fund and its development projects. He further revealed that the visit was interesting as it accorded them the opportunity to get first hand information about their programmes and to interact in a different environment.