Statement by Ms. Seraphine Wakana, United Nations Resident Coordinator in The Gambia at the 24th Conference of the Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts (ICE) for West Africa

Honourable Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs of The Gambia, Mr Mambury Njie

Your Excellency the Under United Nations Secretary General and ECA Executive Secretary, Dr. Vera Songwe

Honourable ECOWAS Commissioner for Trade, Customs and Free Movement, Mr. Tei Konzi,

Outgoing President of the Bureau of the 23rd ICE Session and Director of Macroeconomic Analysis of the Ministry of Budget & National Planning of Nigeria, Mr. David Adeosun, President, Outgoing

Distinguished Experts

Invited Guests

Members of the Press

Ladies and Gentlemen

Good morning.

It is an honour to be invited to this important gathering, bringing together senior officials and experts from 15 countries of our sub-region, intergovernmental organisations, civil society, researchers and journalists amongst others.

I would like to echo the words of the President of the Outgoing Bureau of the 23rd Intergovernmental Committee of Senior Officials and Experts for West Africa (ICE) in welcoming you all to the 24th session taking place in a hybrid fashion here in the smiling coast of Africa under the theme "Leveraging the AfCFTA Implementation to Building Forward Resilient and Sustainable Economies in West Africa in a COVID-19 Era.”

Please allow me to congratulate the Government of The Republic of The Gambia for hosting this important conference being held at a period when trade under the AfCFTA has begun and at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the socio-economic space of our countries.

Honourable Minister

Distinguished Ladies and gentlemen

You will all agree with me that the choice of the main theme of the 24th ICE is timely as countries must take full advantage of the blessing in disguise that COVID-19 presents in the form of innovative repositioning of opportunities and ideas; the AfCFTA is one glaring example for the West African sub-region.

As one of the flagship projects of Africa’s Agenda 2063, the AfCFTA has been identified as an initiative to accelerate Africa’s growth and development. The Agreement will, among other things, (1) create a liberalised market with currently more than 1.3 billion consumers and a combined GDP of about $3 trillion by eliminating the tariffs and non-tariff barriers to trade in goods or services; (2) enhance efficiency of customs procedures, trade facilitation and transit; and (3) foster the development and promotion of regional and continental value chains including diversification and industrialization across the regions of Africa.

Twelve countries in our sub region have ratified the AfCFTA agreement. These countries including The Gambia with ECA’s support have established since 2019 a national strategy with a priority action program to optimize the economic and social benefits of the agreement.

According to ECA estimations under a successful implementation scenario, the AfCFTA would positively impact ECOWAS’s GDP, exports and welfare by 0.3% (US$18 billion), 4.4% (US$34 billion), and 0.2% (US$1 billion) in 2045, respectively; compared with a baseline/situation without AfCFTA in place.

These potential results show that all ECOWAS member States will benefit from an effective and timely implementation of the AfCFTA.

Moreover, achieving the objectives of the AfCFTA will also make valuable contributions to the progress on SDGs in the continent and the sub-region. The implementation of the AfCFTA would directly contribute to SDG 1 which addresses No Poverty, SDG 7 on Affordable and Clean Energy, SDG 8 on Descent work, SDG 9 on Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure, SDG 16 on Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and SDG 17 which focuses on Partnerships for the Global Goals.

Honourable Minister

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

After more than a year since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with its devastating effects, the social and economic impacts are currently being felt on a noticeable global scale.

As a matter of fact, majority of the countries around the world entered recession in 2020; however, there are good prospects for economic recovery. In 2021, given the various active responses and targeted post-crisis recovery measures implemented by governments. Even though our countries seem to demonstrate relative resilience compared to other regions of the world vis-à-vis the destructive and destabilising impact of the pandemic, countries in the region in general and West Africa in particular, have also been diligent in taking appropriate policy responses and implementing socio-economic measures aimed at mitigating the effects of the pandemic on lives and livelihoods.

Ladies and gentlemen

In 2020, the average GDP growth rate estimate for West Africa according to the IMF was 0.9%, compared to 3.3% growth in 2019 including 0.0% for The Gambia against 6.1% growth in 2019. This global economic recession is mainly driven by the COVID-19 pandemic. From the lens of regional performance, 6 out of the 15 West African countries recorded negative GDP growth in 2020 including Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone. The most impacted are the net exporters of services like tourism and the oil sector.

In addition to the numerous factors accounting for weak economic performance in West Africa over the years, the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 further worsened the already deteriorating economic performance with less resilience demonstrated in the agricultural sector.

Currently, the gloomy economic outlook can be viewed as a short-term shock, because the sub-region’s average GDP growth is projected to reach 3.5 % in 2021 and 4.9% in 2022, with 6.0% and 6.5% for The Gambia during the same period.

Distinguished guests

Ladies and gentlemen

Regardless of the structural issues facing the sub-region including low productivity, low diversification and economic competitiveness, large vulnerability of jobs and poor living conditions resulting in more than 40% of the population living in extreme poverty, the COVID-19 pandemic can be characterised as adding more fuel to the fire and further tightening the fiscal space of governments within the sub-region.

For example, available data shows that fiscal deficit in West Africa increased by an average 4.4% in 2019 to 6.8% of GDP in 2020 and the sub-region’s recent external debt profile became highly risky including The Gambia with 75.8% of GDP. This fiscal situation considerably reduces the margins for maneuvers in socio-economic investments by governments that are at the same time facing competing increasing social demands in the areas of health, social protection, education, social safety net, among others.

Honourable Minister

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

Since the declaration of COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern, the United Nations in The Gambia has been proactive in supporting the National COVID-19 response. Through this support we developed a response plan that was alive to the fact that the pandemic’s impact transcends nearly every aspect of social and economic life in the country and informed by the evolving context of The Gambia.

The broad aims of the response were to support the Government of The Gambia to contain the spread of the virus and decrease morbidity in addition to responding to the pandemic’s socio-economic impact and strengthen recovery efforts.

The speed at which the UN in The Gambia moved to support the Government, at the onset of the pandemic, resulted in life-saving initiatives such as the establishment of three COVID-19 treatment centres; upgrading of health facilities in mostly rural areas to tackle the pandemic; and provision of food rations to vulnerable families including to 11,088 pregnant women to address the immediate food security challenges resulting from COVID-19. The UN also facilitated a partnership between the Ministries of Finance, and Health of The Gambia, the Africa Medical Support Platform team and Afrexim bank, which resulted in the acquisition of products estimated at 22 million dollars, thus responding quickly to the shortage of testing kits and other products.

On the AfCFTA, we have supported trade and migration policies to strengthen regional integration and prepare The Gambia's micro small and medium enterprises for the AfCFTA and to leverage the opportunities from the treaty. We have sensitized key stakeholders especially women entrepreneurs on the AfCFTA and its benefits to them. The UN and its partners also organized Senegambian Economic Forum to provide a platform for businesses in both countries to discuss issues pertinent to the AfCFTA and regional integration. In March this year, the UN signed a strategic partnership with the AfCFTA secretariat to promote trade as a stimulus for post Covid-19 socio-economic recovery in Africa and as a driver of driver of sustainable development particularly for women and youth in Africa, in line with the SDGs and Agenda 2063 common vison for the continent. The support included a financial grant of 3 million dollars to enhance AfCFTA Secretariat advocacy among policy makers, business, civil society, academia, youth and other stakeholders.  

In line with the negotiation process on trade in services, The UN is supporting the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment (MOTIE) with technical assistance to provide its scheduling lists for the negotiations. The initiative engages all relevant services institutions including government ministries, regulatory bodies, associations and the private sector to raise awareness, transfer knowledge and include inputs for the negotiation positions. The collaboration also led to the establishment of the Standing Committee on Services under MOTIE with a broad representation of stakeholders. Our success is founded on strategic, solid, long-term partnerships, which support the mobilisation of financing towards The Gambia’s achievement of Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2020 alone, the UN collectively mobilized USD 53.8M and delivered USD 33.4 million through its programmes.

The UN will continue to work in close partnership with the Government and all stakeholders to amplify the ideals of the Decade of Action towards the

achievement of the SDGs and agenda 2063 for the people of The Gambia.

Honourable Minister

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen

These upcoming 2 days of strategic thinking will surely bring more insight on how to maximize the benefits for the sub-region and for our respective countries by exploring the immense opportunities to gain and transformative effects offered by digitalization of all the segments of our respective economies.

I would like to conclude by reiterating the imperative of making the strengthening of regional integration in general and the effective implementation of the AfCFTA in particular a real channel of transformation through the industrialisation of our economies and a source of prosperity and job creation for our sub-region especially for youth & women who are the core of Africa’s economy.

The United Nations system is committed, as part of its support for the implementation of the African Union's Agenda 2063, to make its contribution to a rapid post COVID-19 economic recovery riding on the back of industrialisation through the AfCFTA.

I wish you all fruitful deliberations and thank you for your kind attention.