President of the Gambia revokes government officials’ and himself travel authorizations abroad

Travel to foreign countries that is totally paid for by outside sources and meetings where participation by Gambian citizens is required are exempt.

A government spokeswoman stated on Saturday that Gambia’s President Adama Barrow had stopped all official travel abroad, including his own.

For the remainder of the fiscal year, Barrow signed an executive order “suspending all overseas travel by the president, the vice-president, cabinet ministers, senior government officials, civil servants, and employees across all government institutions and agencies,” according to a statement from the president’s press secretary, Ebrima Sankareh.

Travel to foreign countries that is totally paid for by outside sources and meetings where participation by Gambian citizens is required are exempt.

According to the UN’s Human Development Index, which takes into account factors including standard of living, health, and education, The Gambia, the smallest nation in continental Africa, is ranked 174th out of 191 nations.

The World Bank estimates that almost a fifth of the world’s population subsists on less than $2 per day. Last year, the annual inflation rate was 11.6%.

Last year’s budget deficit increased as a result of declining tax collections and significant state subsidies for gasoline, fertiliser, and grain brought on by the effects of the war in Ukraine.

Due to lower tax collections and increased subsidies for gasoline, fertilisers, and cereals as a result of the conflict in Ukraine, the budget deficit and debt levels have also increased.

AFP