By Sariba Manneh
Dr Demba Sabally, Minister of Agriculture, has told the Assembly that cabinet has approved the Ministry’s cabinet paper for the recapitalisation of National Food Processing, Security, and Marketing Corporation formerly called Gambia Groundnuts Corporation (GGC).
He said his ministry has submitted a four-year recapitalisation plan for the Gambia Groundnuts Corporation (GGC).
Minister Sabally said this while responding to a question put to him by the member for Foni Brefet, Amie Colley on Wednesday, 10 July 2024 during the question and answer session.
Hon. Colley asked the minister to inform the Assembly if there are any plans to recapitalize GGC/NFPSMC to avoid taking loans from Commercial Banks with huge interest payments.
Following cabinet’s approval, Dr. Sabally sad his Ministry has prepared and shared with Ministry of Finance a four-year recapitalisation plan, but has not received any response yet.
He added that the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Trade and Ministry of Agriculture were jointly invited this year to the National Assembly by the Assembly Select Committee on Agriculture to discuss the recapitalisation of the National Food Security Processing and Marketing Corporation.
“I would advise honourable members to seek more answers from the Ministry of Finance since my ministry had an approved cabinet paper and we also drafted a four-year recapitalisation plan, We are working with the Ministry of Finance,” he said.
When Member for Foni Brefet asked what went wrong since 2023, he explained that the Ministry of Agriculture cannot recapitalize GGC as it is the Ministry of Finance that can recapitalize the aforesaid corporation.
