{"id":90933,"date":"2025-11-26T20:08:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt"},"modified":"2025-11-26T20:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:29:09","slug":"tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt","title":{"rendered":"Tombong Saidy Criticizes Minister Ceesay on Debt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. <\/strong><\/span><b>Tombong Saidy, a member of the Unite Movement for Change (UMC), has launched a blistering attack on the government\u2019s financial management, claiming that President Adama Barrow\u2019s administration has accumulated more national debt than the combined borrowing of the previous two regimes.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In a fiery statement released on his official Facebook page, Saidy slammed senior officials for allegedly attempting to spread misinformation and downplay The Gambia\u2019s crippling $2.2 billion national debt.<\/p>\n<p>The UMC figure directly challenged Minister of Information Dr. Ismaila Ceesay over a recent statement in which the Minister appeared to minimize the severity of the debt, asking, \u201cWhat is $2.2 billion?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGiven the size of The Gambia\u2019s economy and its population, our country is one of the most heavily indebted nations in the world relative to GDP and revenue capacity,\u201d Saidy said. \u201cTo downplay this crisis is not only irresponsible but also an attempt to mislead citizens who deserve the truth.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saidy also disputed the Ministry of Finance\u2019s claim that previous governments should bear 80% of the national debt burden.<\/p>\n<p>He highlighted official figures showing that The Gambia\u2019s national debt stood at approximately D47 billion in 2016. Under the Barrow administration, however, that figure has surged to over D110 billion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis means that the Barrow administration has borrowed more than the Jawara and Jammeh governments combined,\u201d Saidy said. \u201cThis is a historical fact that cannot be distorted by political messaging.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The UMC stalwart demanded that the government cease misleading the public and shift its focus to responsible borrowing aimed at productive sectors that can foster economic growth and reduce poverty.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cGambians deserve honesty, accountability, and leadership that respects their intelligence,\u201d Saidy said. \u201cThe era of sugar-coating economic challenges must end.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen whether the government will issue a formal response to Saidy\u2019s highly critical statement.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Gambia<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Gambia. Tombong Saidy, a member of the Unite Movement for Change (UMC), has launched a blistering attack on the government\u2019s financial management, claiming that President Adama Barrow\u2019s administration has accumulated more national debt than the combined borrowing of the previous two regimes. In a fiery statement released on his official Facebook page, Saidy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":90932,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[260],"class_list":["post-90933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Tombong Saidy Criticizes Minister Ceesay on Debt - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tombong Saidy, a member of the Unite Movement for Change (UMC), has launched a blistering attack on the government\u2019s ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tombong Saidy Criticizes Minister Ceesay on Debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tombong Saidy, a member of the Unite Movement for Change (UMC), has launched a blistering attack on the government\u2019s ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-26T20:08:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-26T20:29:09+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/11\/sm_1764176269.3979.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Tombong Saidy Criticizes Minister Ceesay on Debt\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-26T20:08:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-26T20:29:09+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt\"},\"wordCount\":321,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2025\/11\/sm_1764176269.3979.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tombong-saidy-criticizes-minister-ceesay-on-debt\",\"name\":\"Tombong Saidy Criticizes Minister Ceesay on Debt - 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