The Gambian leader His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya AJJ Jammeh yesterday in  seperate engagements received in Kanilai, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the managing director of the World Bank and the secretary general of the Community of Sahel Saharan States (CEN-SAD) Mohammed Almadani Al Azhari, who was a special envoy of the Libyan leader, Colonel Moumar Ghadaffi.

Speaking to reporters soon after her audience with the Gambian leader, Madam Okonjo-Iweala, who is in the country for a two-day visit explained that her mission was to look at how World Bank support programmes to The Gambia government are doing, as well as look at economic developments in the country. She disclosed that her visit is also meant to assess overall the opportunities that exist for The Gambia to grow even faster than it is doing now.

The World Bank MD then confirmed the very good conversation she had with President Jammeh on several areas, noting that they delved into agriculture and the potential that the country has in doing well in this sector.  ?The president has many ideas of how to help the small farmers to do better and we talked about how the World Bank might be able to support with more valued-added production so that we can create more jobs and do more processing of agricultural goods in the country,? she said. She added that they also talked about the country?s possibility for growing rice and being able to feed not only itself but also some of its neighbours. ?We talked about the groundnut industry and what we can do since many Gambians grow groundnut to enhance that industry,? she stated, disclosing further that the World Bank is already supporting the groundnut industry with the factory. She expressed their resolve to working together to do more in the future.

The WB top official went on to state that their discussion also touched on the energy situation and how the World Bank can assist the government to look at all the alternative sources of energy that The Gambia can harness so that the cost of energy will go down. ?Because if you want private investment and you want industry, you need to have a cheaper energy. The president is very cognisant of that and in fact he is ahead of the game and trying to bring forward new ideas that we can work on,? she stated.

While revealing that economic management of the country was also part of the agenda of their discussion, Okonjo-Iweala observed that The Gambia has done very well with the public financial system, stressing that it needs to be continued. She also commended the strides made in the education sector but quickly noted that there is still room for improvement.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was accompanied to Kanilai by the World Bank country director to The Gambia, Habib Feteni, the ministers of Basic and Secondary Education, Economy, National Planning and Industrial Development, Fatou Lamin-Faye and Yusupha Kah respectively.

Libyan envoy
Mohammed Almadani Al Azhari, the secretary general of the Community of Sahel Saharan States (CEN-SAD) and special envoy of the Libyan leader equally told reporters that he conveyed the best greetings from Brother Ghadaffi to his Gambian counterpart. He noted that his discussion with President Jammeh touched on certain issues of interest to the CEN-SAD especially on issues of security.

He revealed that the upcoming of CEN-SAD summit is scheduled to take place in May this year in N?Djamena, explaining that he has requested President Jammeh to put forward his proposal during the summit. The Libyan special envoy further disclosed to reporters that his discussion with The Gambian leader also touched on the next African Union summit. He expressed satisfaction that he will leave the country with the conviction and belief that they are on the right track on issues discussed.