Dr Ousman Gajigo observes that Tourists staying in Gambian hotels are increasingly crossing into Senegal for nature and cultural experiences that should be found at home, exposing a costly leakage in the country’s tourism economy.

From the neglect of Abuko Nature Reserve and Sindola Safari Park to poor integration with agriculture and local communities, government inaction has left the sector shallow and enclave-driven, argues Dr Gajigo.

As arrivals become the sole metric of success, the deeper value of tourism—jobs, linkages, and shared prosperity—continues to diminish. More in this opinion piece.

After the government issued a statement setting the price of groundnut at D38,000 per tonne and creating a monopoly on Gambian groundnuts, numerous critics highlighted that the price has remained stagnant for three years while the cost of living continues to increase.

One critic, Dr Gajigo, has followed this up with a publication calling for a wake-up call for a national discussion on the price of groundnuts for farmers. He argues, “There are many reasons why” this year’s “price is extremely low given the Gambian context.”

Find out his reasons in this opinion piece.

Opposition leader, economist and agripreneur Dr Ousman Gajigo criticises the government’s failure to govern and face the reality. In his latest piece, he believes that the government is “increasingly out of touch with reality” and “persistently claiming the opposite of what real people are experiencing every single day”.

According to Dr Gajigo, “Over the past couple of months, the country has been facing food security challenges, a migrant crisis, and health sector problems. Yet officials in the Adama Barrow government would have you disbelieve your own eyes.”

More in the opinion piece.

Economist and politician Dr Ousman Gajigo opines that recent statements from the Ministry of Trade, Industry & Regional Integration (MOTIE) and Jah Oil Company regarding the cement crisis are false.

Although he notes that the statements are quite similar in their purported explanation, Dr Gajigo believes that both statements provided a false explanation for a completely avoidable cement crisis situation.

More in this opinion piece.

Newspapers recently reported that the government of The Gambia still owes Karpowership an arrear of $19.6 million. That amount is nothing compared to what the government of Adama Barrow has squandered in its dealings with this company. Karpowership is a Turkish company that owns a fleet of ships from which it sells electricity – basically an electricity company with floating power plants. The government of The Gambia bought electricity from this company for seven years between 2018 and 2024. More in this opinion piece.

The Gambia’s cement shortages have become so routine that they no longer shock anyone. Yet behind this “never-ending crisis” lies a manufactured problem—one driven by government decisions that favour a well-connected business over the national interest. More in this opinion piece.

The Gambian government’s decision to set the 2025/2026 groundnut purchase price at D38,000 per tonne has sparked criticism from agricultural economist Dr. Ousman Gajigo, who says the rate leaves farmers underpaid and accelerates the steady collapse of groundnut production. More in this expert opinion.

It is easy to differentiate a serious government from an incompetent one. One way of doing so is to see how they respond to valid criticisms. The response of President Barrow to concerns about the current deplorable state of healthcare in The Gambia leaves no doubt as to which kind of government he is leading. The reality is that everyone in the country knows that the average Gambian does not have access to affordable and quality healthcare. More in this editorial.

Across the country, women gardeners continue to coax life out of parched soils and ageing wells, yet their contribution to national food security barely registers in official planning. Vegetable gardening remains the forgotten pillar of Gambian agriculture. More in this opinion piece.

As public frustration over deteriorating mobile services reaches new heights, PURA’s failure to enforce its own quality-of-service regulations has emerged as a central cause of the crisis. The regulator’s long-standing negligence—marked by years without published monitoring reports—has left mobile operators unaccountable and consumers bearing the consequences. More in this opinion peice.