By Amadou Jadama
The Africa Economic Research Consortium (AERC)in partnership with the National Farmers Platform of The Gambia Friday held a research dissemination seminar on the inclusive finance in African States.
The forum held at Paradise Suit Hotel, brought together participants from the banking industry, private sector actors as well as the financial regulators among others.
Organised under the theme; “Inclusive access to finance in African States”, the forum discussed the importance of research in policy development.
Dr Dianah Muchai, AERC research manager said the purpose of the workshop is emanating from the collaborative research and inclusive finance in African States.
“We want to see how African States could achieve their development aspirations through inclusive finance. We want to understand the mechanisms to use so that we would be able to make policy recommendations that would help our countries in the near future in the areas of finance,” she added.
The President of the National Farmers Platform of The Gambia, Sheriff Bojang said the forum is in line with his organisation’s objective on improving access to finance for its members.
“The recommendations that will come out of the forum will be utilise to synchronise with our policies. We have already started consulting with micro financial organisations,” he said.
Lamin Fadera, Secretary General of the platform highlighted the importance of the inclusive access to finance, particularly, for farmers. He said it is crucial for the country’s economic development, food security and climate change mitigation efforts.
