Halifa Sallah, secretary general of PDOIS, has offered solutions that can end the crippling poverty in The Gambia.

Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday (30 April) at the party’s bureau in Churchill‘s Town, Sallah said citizens must be aware of how states are run in order to elect a government that can address their plights, adding that this has been a PDOIS crusade since its formation over four decades ago.

“We have a solution but it’s a national solution. This is the debate. Anybody who comes to you and talks about our backwardness must understand that if we are not mature in thinking, if we don’t develop awareness we will continue to be among the least developed countries in the world, uncounted and voiceless.

“We have emphasised that the national wealth must be put in a Cooperative Bank and provided to the farmers to have seeds, fertilisers and farming equipment to use on their lands as much as possible to produce for us to be self-sufficient in food,” he said.

“It must be put in the hands of small-medium enterprises that aim to process our agricultural produce. To have an agro-industrial process of a minor scale of an appropriate technology to put many young people at work. Some will want to be in the services of distributing trade and other services and they can still benefit from that Cooperative Bank,” he added.

Reporting by Adama Makasuba