Banjul, 3rd March 2025: His Excellency President Adama Barrow has announced that his government is set to disburse about three hundred and ninety-six million, seven hundred and sixty-one thousand, three hundred and twenty-one Dalasis (GMD396,761,321.00) from the recently created Skills Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SIE) Fund to empower the youth of the country.
The President made this announcement on Friday, February 28th during award ceremony of scholarship grants by the Ministry of Higher Education under window two of the Skills Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SIE) Fund.
Through the Fund, the Government is reported to be awarding one thousand and eighty-seven (1087) scholarships across twenty-five (25) public and private TVET institutions.
Launched in June 2024, the SIE Fund is a component of the World Bank-funded Resilience, Inclusion, Skills, and Equity Project (RISE) - an ongoing project being implemented by MoHERST - towards building a competent and skilful resource for the socio-economic development of the country. It seeks to fulfil one of the targets in the higher education sector Strategic Plan (2021–2025) and the Recovery Focussed National Development Plan (2023 – 2027).
Through this component of the project, the student beneficiaries are expected to have the opportunity to be on scholarship and guided to adopt and utilise technical skills learned from the classroom to establish suitable business ventures.
The President said it is an opening for the youth and women to acquire skills and contribute meaningfully to the welfare of their families and communities, and to the economy.
“The project is in line with my government’s decentralisation and social inclusion drive. As planned, the awards will give much prominence to submissions into programmes that target widening access to TVET within the regions. By doing so, enrolment will increase for the physically challenged and other disadvantaged persons,” he stated.
Each scholarship involves paying four hundred Dollars ($400) per student for tuition and stipends, with additional support for regional TVET centre students to cover transportation and accommodation expenses. The investment, the Gambian leader declared, “represents our commitment to nurturing the potential of our youth and supporting their educational journeys”.
He informed that to commence the programme, government will provide grants to both public and private TVET institutions across all regions of the country. The grants, he explained, cover clear-cut accredited programmes at Certificate and Diploma levels in agriculture, engineering, tourism and hospitality, business, and creative and performing arts.
The President further revealed that Government, through the Ministry, will institute a rigorous monitoring mechanism to make sure there is an eighty percent employability rate among the student beneficiaries. “This will ensure that the project targets are met, and that the intervention contributes to a genuine reduction of the unemployment rate among the youth and women in the country,” he added.
He commended the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, Science, and Technology, the Projects Coordination Unit of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs, and the World Bank for making this programme happen.
“To build on this important intervention, I encourage the beneficiary TVET institutions to take this opportunity with seriousness. I urge all of them to support their students by making certain that they complete their programmes and get employed or establish their businesses.
We also appeal to other development partners, the private sector, and civil society organisations to support us further to build a more robust human capital stock for the country,” he concluded.
By Lamin Kujabi
