Tony Blair, the former U.K. Prime Minister, has praised the ‘progress made in The Gambia’ since President Adama Barrow took office.

The former U.K. Prime minister and chairman of the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), who is in The Gambia for a visit, pays a courtesy call on President Adama Barrow at the State House in Banjul.

After a closed door meeting with President Barrow, Mr. Blair told the State House press corps that the country was changing for the better.

“I think The Gambia has made huge progress in recent times’’, he said.

‘‘The Gambia has got high [economic] growth rate, tourism is up substantially and there are still big challenges but I found the President very focused on those and I am very optimistic about the future of the country”.

Mr. Blair said he was excited about the strong partnership between the presidency and his organisation in improving performance and delivery on the priorities of the President as per the National Development Plan -NDP.

Meeting with State House Senior Officials

Shortly after his engagement with President Barrow, Mr. Blair also held a closed-door meeting with Senior Officials of the presidency.

According to the Director of Press and Public Relations, Ms. Amie Bojang- Sissoho, the meeting was held for the former British Prime Minister to exchange ideas with the senior staff of the presidency with the hope of enhancing delivery and performance.

The discussions touched on management and coordination strategies among the various units at the Presidency, and wider government by extension to maximize efficiency and effectiveness on delivering on the Presidential priorities.

Mr Blair informed the meeting that he has observed marked improvement at the Presidency since he started visiting in 2017.

Tony Blair Institute-Gambia works closely with the Department of Strategic Policy and Delivery (DSPD) at the Office of the President to help galvanise and coordinate various policy activities of the government in order to maximize outputs. The work of the Tony Blair Institute in The Gambia focuses on delivery and performance.

Tony Blair works as a consultant and adviser to President Adama Barrow. He moderated President Barrow’s Chatham House speech in London in May 2018.