Africa-Press – Gambia. The Minister of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, said on Monday that the creation of job opportunities by itself is unlikely to stop young Gambians from undertaking irregular migration, commonly referred to as the “Backway,” challenging a widely held assumption about youth unemployment and migration.
Speaking at the government’s end-of-year press conference, Dr. Ceesay argued that it is a misconception to believe that employment alone would persuade young people to remain in the country.
“Now, this data is telling us that there are people who even leave their jobs to take the back way. I have done a lot of research on the irregular migration thing, and I have seen people who have businesses and shops; they sold their shops and took the back way. I have seen people who were working, and they took loans from the banks and took the back way. So jobs alone, the provision of jobs alone, is not enough,” he said.
Dr. Ceesay said there are employment opportunities in the country that remain unfilled, particularly in technical fields, pointing to what he described as a mismatch between available skills and labor market needs.
“There are jobs available in this country, my brother,” he said. “People have been calling me, looking for technicians, solar technicians; they cannot find them. I even referred them to the Minister of Higher Education.”
He emphasized that several companies are actively seeking workers but struggle to recruit qualified personnel, underscoring the need to realign training and education with market demand.
According to Dr. Ceesay, once individuals decide to embark on the irregular migration journey, opportunities at home often fail to dissuade them. “When people have made up their minds, you cannot stop them, no matter what opportunities exist,” he said.
The minister acknowledged that the government currently lacks comprehensive empirical data on the total number of jobs created nationwide, but said certain sectors provide strong indicators. He cited the information sector as one that supports thousands of jobs across its value chain.
He also pointed to the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP), the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises, the fintech industry, and the expansion of telecommunications and electricity into rural areas as contributors to job creation.
“So, for me, I think even if we harvest the data by looking at how many banks’ accounts have been opened, looking at social security, and looking at the YEP, I believe that we have provided more jobs than we even promised. But the data is the problem,” he said.
He said the ministry is working to address that gap through the establishment of a specialized research unit, which he said would improve accountability once the national labor policy is finalized.
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