FactCheck: Has the Barrow Government Disbursed Over D90 Million to Support Women Entrepreneurs?

President Adama Barrow, Minister Kinteh and women beneficiaries © Office of the President

By Yusef Taylor, @FlexDan_YT

During the widely watched Good Morning Show on the State Broadcaster, GRTS TV, on 1st December 2025, the Minister for Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, claimed that President Adama Barrow’s government has disbursed over D90 million to different women via the Women’s Empowerment Fund (WEF).

Managed by the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Welfare, the fund is actually called the Women’s Enterprise Fund and often referred to as the Women’s Enterprise Development Fund (WEDF) in the budget. According to the Ministry’s website, the fund was established by an Act of Parliament in 2020 and aims to “respond to the challenges faced by women to access finance and to improve the economic empowerment of women in the Gambia, thereby reducing poverty among women”.

Claim: Providing updates to Gambian audiences and responding to questions from a journalist, Dr. Ceesay stated that: “the most important thing is, we are supporting women entrepreneurs through the women empowerment fund. We’ve disbursed over D90 million to different women who are either new entrepreneurs or existing entrepreneurs to either start new businesses or expand their businesses.”

Minister for Information Media and Broadcasting Services, Dr Ismaila Ceesay © GRTS TV

FactCheck: To conduct a thorough fact-check, our reporter engaged Dr. Ismaila Ceeay and implementers of the WEF after conducting budget research. According to the National Gender Policy 2025 to 2034 published in June 2024 by the Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Welfare, “In January 2019, a new Ministry of Women, Children, and Social Welfare was established by the government and mandated to coordinate the affairs of Women, Children and Social Welfare.”

The Ministry of Gender, Children, and Social Welfare revealed that the WEF “assists solely women’s groups who are in a vulnerable position and require support. These beneficiaries are granted cash loans at a minimal 5% straight interest rate to venture into various entrepreneurial interventions.”

Our first observation is that for a Fund established in September 2020 by an Act of Parliament, the first disbursements based on the Act should only occur in 2021; however, our budget research highlights that payments from the WEF started as early as 2019, which coincided with the establishment of the Ministry.

Perusing through the 2019 Approved Budget shows that the newly established Ministry was allocated D5 million to finance the WEF. However, that year only D924,750 was actually spent. Going through all the budgets from 2019 to date shows that D65.6 million was approved to be spent on the WEF from 2019 to 2024; however, only D49.9 million was actually spent over that period. The chart below shows the approved and actual expenditures on WEF according to the budget.

The only year President Barrow’s government overspent on the Fund was in 2021, the year he ran for his second term. That year, the government overspent by D7 million, which translates to an overspend of 70% of the D10 million allocated in 2021.

Parliamentarians approved D15 million to be spent on the scheme this year [2025]; meanwhile, Cabinet is requesting for Parliamentary approval to spend a record D16.6 million on the WEF in 2026.

Chart showing approved and actual spending on WEF from 2019 to 2024 © Askanwi after MoFEA

Our research unearthed an article highlighting the Minister for Gender, Children, and Social Welfare, Hon. Fatou Kinteh, responding to parliamentary inquiries on the implementation of the WEF last year. According to Hon. Kinteh, “From its inception to date, a total of D66,320,000 has been disbursed to women’s groups across the country and in all the regions.”

The article published in July 2024 quotes the Minister explaining that “a total of D46,105,751.48 has been recovered so far, accounting for 69.5 percent of the amount that has been disbursed.”

During the course of our research, our reporter came across the infographics shown below, which indicate that over D95 million has been disbursed on the Women Enterprise Fund to date. After contacting Dr. Ceesay, he referred us to the Ministry of Gender, and we eventually got in touch with Mr. Alpha Humah, who manages the WEF.

Infographics obtained during the research

According to Mr. Humah, Dr. Ceesay’s statement is correct given that the funds they recovered [D46 million] were also reinvested into the fund to support more women’s groups. Mr. Humah promised to provide information on how much has been invested and reinvested into the fund; however, a week has elapsed without his response. Once we get his response, this will be published.

Our reporter spoke to a financial expert who explained that the funds recovered from the WEF [D46 million] cannot be considered as a new investment, although they pointed out that the funds can be used to fund new women's groups.

However, all beneficiaries should pay 5% interest, which can be counted as new funds invested into the WEF.

Verdict: From the response of the Minister of Gender, the WEF had only spent D66.3 million since its inception to July 2024 and recovered D46 million. However, according to the budget, only D49.9 million has been spent from 2019 to 2024.

According to the Minister for Gender and our budget research, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay’s claim that over D90 million has been invested into the WEF is deemed FALSE.