Illusion of Truth? Minister's D36 Million UTG Transport Claims FactChecked Again!
Information Minister Dr Ceesay on West Coast Radio and QTV
By Yusef Taylor
The illusory truth effect, otherwise known as the illusion of truth effect, is a commonly used tactic in modern politics where false information is repeated with confidence, leading the public to accept such false statements as true.
This appears to be the case with the Minister for Information, Media and Broadcasting Services, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, who repeatedly claimed on radio and TV that the government spends up to D36 million every year to shuttle University of The Gambia (UTG) students to and from Faraba Banta.
Claims:
Last year, Information Minister Dr. Ismaila Ceesay claimed on QTV’s This Morning Show on 20th November 2024 that the government “spends D33 million dalasis every year to provide these services for UTG students to go through the year.”
Watch Dr Ceesay’s first claim on QTV from the 1 hour, 9 minutes and 15 seconds mark.
More recently, on Tuesday, 10th June 2025, Dr. Ceesay increased this amount by D3 million when he claimed that the government “spends D36 million every year to transport them [students] to Faraba Banta every morning and back again to attend their classes.”
Watch Dr Ceesay’s second claim on Coffeee Time with Peter Gomez on West Coast Radio from the 8 minutes and 17 seconds mark.
FactCheck:
Askanwi published a FactCheck on Dr. Ceesay’s first claim after conducting research in the 2025 Approved Annual Budget and engaging officials at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA) to ascertain how much was actually spent on the UTG’s student bus service each year.
Our research revealed that the UTG’s student bus service started in 2024, and only D3.5 million was spent that year on the UTG bus service, while only D20 million was approved to be spent in 2025 [this year].
Even when considering the government’s entire expenditure on student bus services across all levels, the maximum spent since 2021 was D21.7 million in 2021. Our chart below shows exactly how much has been spent since 2021, declining to the lowest (D8 million) in 2023 and rising marginally to D8.7 million in 2024.
Students Bus Service to GTSC for all levels (not just UTG)
The highest allocation the government has made to student bus services for all levels (not just UTG) over the past five years is D46 million in 2025.
However, our research shows that the government only spent the full allocated amount once, which was in 2021. This highlights that, more often than not, the government underspends its allocated amount for student bus services.
Verdict:
According to the MoFEA’s Approved Budget from 2022 to 2025, it is evident that the government has never spent more than D21.7 million on student bus services to GTSC for all levels. In fact, the government spent only D3.5 million in 2024 on student bus services to GTSC for tertiary and higher education.
This highlights that Information Minister Dr. Ceesay’s repeated claims that the government spent D33 million and D36 million every year to shuttle UTG students to and from the Faraba Banta campus are FALSE.
Student Bus Service to UTG
