By Tabora Bojang
Members of the National Assembly yesterday cornered outgoing Trade Minister Baboucarr Joof, wanting to know the progress made on government’s promise to create 150,000 jobs in the coming five years. The promise was made in 2023 during the SONA.
Appearing for the final time as trade minister before the National Assembly yesterday, Minister Joof, now redeployed as minister of defence, was asked by Banjul Central NAM Abdoulie Njai to inform the Assembly about the number of jobs created by the government since the inception of the 150,000 job target.
In reply, Minister Joof said he does not have access to such data yet but added that there is a new labour force survey which he is yet to formally receive but expressed optimism that his successor will have access to it.
Asked why these mechanisms were not put in place before rolling out the policy, Joof replied that “the setting up of a target in a policy was demonstrating the government’s determination” to address unemployment. “We came out with a policy to say we want to create 150,000 decent jobs but if we were to wait for a mechanism in place to be able to count employment, by now we would still have no policy to force the government to come up with other corresponding policies to address the issue of unemployment. So it was necessary for the policy to come first then we work towards the solution,” Joof explained.
Member for Foni Bintang Bakary Badjie accused the minister of failing to provide any figures to the Assembly and asked him to explain when would he provide the figures requested from him. Joof said, “For 60 years, we have not had a mechanism to count how many workers we have. We were all the time estimating. So we are now developing a system that will count employment but I don’t know when it is going to happen. But for now I cannot give a figure. That will be misleading.”
Member for Kiang West Lamin Ceesay who described the minister’s answers as vague said he expected better clarity. He asked the minister to explain how the 150,000 job target was factored and what monitoring mechanisms were put in place before designing the target.
Minister Joof responded that it is a technical matter and he was not in position to give that modulation. “I know that we sat with technicians and experts to come up with a figure that we convinced ourselves the economy will generate. The 150,000 jobs are not all expected to be government employees. It is the economy. You have to formalise in order to determine the number. There are many companies we have that the economy does not know about. I can give a figure and get away with it but we don’t want to mislead you since that will be unfair to the state and to the oath I take. So give us time,” he said.
