Gantry 5
  • Home
  • Policy monitor
      • Back
      • Back
      • POLICY RESPONSES IN AFRICA
      • School closures
      • Workplace closures
      • Cancellation of public events
      • Restrictions on public gatherings
      • Public information campaigns
      • Restrictions on internal movement
      • Back
      • ...
      • Public transport closures
      • International travel controls
      • Stay-at-home requirements
      • Government Response Stringency
      • Contact tracing
      • Testing Policies
      • Back
      • About Covid Watch Africa
      • About the pandemic
      • Data Explorer
      • FAQ
  • National reports
      • Back
      • Algeria
      • Burundi
      • Comoros
      • Equatorial Guinea
      • Gambia
      • Lesotho
      • Mali
      • Namibia
      • Sao Tome and Principe
      • South Africa
      • Togo
      • Back
      • Angola
      • Cameroon
      • Congo
      • Egypt
      • Ghana
      • Liberia
      • Mauritania
      • Niger
      • Senegal
      • South Sudan
      • Tunisia
      • Back
      • Benin
      • Cabo Verde
      • Democratic Republic of Congo
      • Eritrea
      • Guinea
      • Libya
      • Mauritius
      • Nigeria
      • Seychelles
      • Sudan
      • Uganda
      • Back
      • Botswana
      • Central African Republic
      • Cote d’Ivoire
      • Ethiopia
      • Guinea-Bissau
      • Madagascar
      • Morocco
      • Rwanda
      • Sierra Leone
      • Eswatini
      • Zimbabwe
      • Back
      • Burkina Faso
      • Chad
      • Djibouti
      • Gabon
      • Malawi
      • Kenya
      • Mozambique
      • Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic
      • Somalia
      • Tanzania
      • Zambia
  • Citizen Watch
      • Back
      • Back
      • Submit a report
      • .
      • Covid Funds Tracker
      • Digital Civic Engagement Resources
      • Back
      • View reports
      • Human Rights Violations
      • Civic Space restrictions
      • Innovations & Civic engagement
      • Back
  • News
      • Back
      • Latest developments
      • Innovations
      • Analysis & Opinions
      • Global response
      • CWA Webinars
  • Data & Trackers
      • Back
      • Funds Trackers
      • Vaccine Distribution Trackers
      • Fiscal Responses Trackers
      • Monetary Policy Responses Trackers
      • Testing Trackers

The Gambia

share with Whatsapp
share with Telegram
Send by email
Share in Reddit
powered by social2s

  • Overview
  • Official Resources
  • COVID-19 Restrictions
  • Economic Measures
  • Civic Freedom Tracker

Overview

The Gambia registered its first COVID-19 case on March 17, 2020, involving a female Gambian returnee from the United Kingdom. The number of cases and the rate of infection increased, albeit at a slow rate, until mid-July. The President declared a state of public health emergency starting from March 27, including closing all non-essential public and private businesses, following an earlier order to close the airspace and land borders. Emergency powers were used to freeze prices of essential commodities such as rice, meat, fish, cooking oil soap, sanitizers, and cement. To enforce social distancing, all commercial vehicles were allowed to carry only up to half of their licensed number of passengers. All public gatherings, including funerals, were limited to a maximum of 10 people. Nevertheless, there was a surge in the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases by mid-July, mainly through community transmission involving many healthcare workers and high-level government officials. The surge strained the already fragile health system and stretched government’s ability to properly respond to the pandemic, especially in terms of testing and management of treatment centers.

The imposition and extension of the state of public health emergency have not been plain sailing. The National Assembly declined to approve a second 45-day extension of the state of public health emergency after the expiration of the first. However, based on the role played by the emergency measures in containing the spread of the disease, the President used executive powers to extend it by 21 days, effective May 19 (which is the maximum allowed under the Constitution, as the National Assembly was then not in session). Since the expiration of the extension, the President used executive powers again (on June 10, July 1, and July 7) to extend the state of public health emergency, mainly for 7 days, which is the maximum permissible period under the constitution when the National Assembly is in session. Concerned by the extensions of the state of public health emergency without parliamentary approval, the Gambia Bar Association, and the National Assembly in particular, questioned the legitimacy of such extensions. The Attorney General and Minister of Justice presented a motion at the National Assembly around July 13 for a 45-day extension of the public health emergency laws, but it failed to proceed after majority of the lawmakers voted against it. The situation led to an announcement by President Barrow of another 7-day extension of the public health emergency to July 22, 2020. At the same time, the presidency urged the public to observe strict social distancing, and imposed a mandatory wearing of facemasks in all public places including inside taxis and other public transports, markets, and schools; while empowering the Minister of Health to take any restrictive measure required to contain the disease. With the mid-July surge in the number of new Covid-19 infections, the presidency announced another 21-day public emergency regulation, effective August 6, 2020. The regulation imposed a night-time curfew between the hours of 10 p.m. and 5 a.m. and re-introduced a ban on all public gatherings and closure of all non-essential businesses, educational institutions, and places of worship. A subsequent extension of the emergency regulation on August 27 eased some of the emergency restrictions, including the opening of places of worship, albeit under strict COVID-19 protocols. It also maintained the ban on public gatherings and the night-time curfew, which was relaxed subsequently on September 17 together with market restrictions. In anticipation of the re-opening of the tourism season in October, and in the bid to attract tourists, the authorities announced, on September 4, an amendment to their guidelines on COVID-19 prevention. They abolished the two-week mandatory quarantine for inbound travelers and required evidence of a negative COVID-19 test result of less than 72 hours from all passengers prior to departure to The Gambia. Those without the required certificate as well as those who are COVID-19 positive will be quarantined. Meanwhile, following the second wave of the surge in Covid-19 cases and the emergence of a new strain of the virus in America, Europe and parts of Africa, the authorities have amended their rules regarding visits to The Gambia. Effective January 9, travelers coming from countries where the new strain of the Covid-19 virus is identified will have to undergo (i) testing for the virus upon arrival, in addition to the requirement to have a valid COVID-19 PCR test result of no more than 72 hours; and (ii) mandatory quarantine at their own cost. The resumption and continued surge in the number of confirmed Covid-19 cases compelled the authorities to announce on February 17 the suspension of issuance of police permits for all forms of political and social events, including music festivals. The new measures came into effect on March 8, 2021. The Ministry of Health (MoH) on May 27, 2021, announced the detection, in The Gambia, of the new variant of Covid-19 identified in India. Consequently, it updated its testing and quarantine protocols and now requires all passengers arriving from India to possess a negative PCR test valid for 72hrs, with an additional measure of quaranting all such passengers for 72hrs at their own expense. Generally, all arriving passengers with positive Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) will be quarantined for a maximum of 72hrs at their own expense and will further undergo a free PCR testing.

Tourism, a key driver of trade and foreign exchange inflows, has halted. Interest rates on T-bills increased at the onset of the pandemic but have eased on the back of subdued inflation and measures taken by the Central Bank to support market liquidity. Remittances from official channels have remained exceptionally high, in part, due to a reduction in private transfers through informal channels (which have since migrated to formal channels) and remittances from the Gambian diaspora in response to COVID-19. At the onset of the pandemic, a supplementary appropriation bill was approved by the National Assembly to accommodate spending on the health emergency and social support, and to facilitate the recovery through infrastructure spending and support to the tourism sector and other public entities affected by the pandemic.

Vaccination. The Gambia is part of the African Union's COVAX initiative that is supporting the country with AstraZeneca vaccines to cover about 20 percent of the population. The World Bank approved, on April 19, 2021, US$8 million grant to provide and deploy COVID-19 vaccines to cover 40 percent of the population; while the African Centre for Decease Control (CDC) is providing 12, 000 vaccine doses. The authorities received some 37,000 syringes under the COVAX initiative, ahead of the arrival of 36,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine on March 3. The first tranche of syringes, shipped from the Gavi-funded stockpile at UNICEF's humanitarian warehouse in Dubai, also included 375 safety boxes for the safe disposal of used syringes. The country also received 15,000 doses of Astra Zeneca vaccine through the MTN/AFRICA CDC donation. Senegal also offered 10,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines to The Gambia. As of May 28, 2021, 33,819 people received Covid-19 vaccines of which 4,671 representing 0.2 percent of the population are now fully vaccinated. The authorities, while reportedly making efforts to secure additional stocks of Covid-19 vaccines have now shifted their priorities to administering the second dose to people who had already taken their first dose due to the low stock of the vaccines in the country.

Reopening of the economy. A government announcement on Wednesday July 22 lifted the state of public health emergency and thus re-opened the economy, which first started with a gradual easing of emergency restrictions that helped a partial re-opening of businesses. Fuel prices were reduced to prevent transport price hikes and help ease the burden on commercial transport operators who were then required to carry 3/4 of their vehicle capacities. The authorities also eased restrictions, including the re-opening of markets up to 6 p.m., the re-opening of Mosques, Churches, and schools for Grades 9 and 12 students who were preparing for their sub-regional junior and senior secondary school leaving certificate exams. The government issued on October 6 a press release announcing the re-opening of all weekly markets dubbed ‘Lumos,’ which are very popular in the rural areas. It also announced a two-thronged resumption of face-to-face learning, which began with the re-opening of all Junior & Senior Secondary schools, and tertiary institutions on October 14; followed by a re-opening of kindergartens and primary schools on October 28. The authorities also announced on October 16, the immediate re-opening of the country’s borders, although the airport remained closed for renovation until it was reopened at end-October. They authorities also relaxed the restrictions on the night clubs and casinos, following an earlier decision to only allow the re-opening of hotels, bars, restaurants, and gymnasia.

Meanwhile, in response to the initial easing of emergency restrictions earlier in Senegal, and the possibility of increases in cross-border infections, The Gambian authorities resolved to protecting the country’s international borders (air, land, and sea) and enhanced cross-border monitoring and control. They have built testing centers across the regions, increased the number of quarantine centers, and converted one of the country’s main referral hospitals into a COVID-19 treatment center. The authorities also announced a plan to embark on a mass country-wide testing campaign. This plan was seriously affected by an overwhelming surge, in mid-July, in the number of COVID-19 cases, with many healthcare workers and high-level government officials testing positive. The WFP’s Passenger Air Service made its inaugural flight to The Gambia on June 8, 2020, with planned two trips per week. SN Brussels Airlines started weekly ad-hoc flights to The Gambia on June 22 and had since the beginning of November, increased the frequency of their flights to three per week. Turkish Airline also resumed its weekly flight to Banjul onOctober 4, while Royal Air Maroc, Asky and Air Senegal resumed their flights to Banjulin late November–early December. The Gambia Experience’s maiden flight for the 2020/2021 first tourists flight landed, on Wednesday December 9, with 147 passengers. The company suspended its flights in early January as the number of COVID-19 cases surged in The Gambia and passengers from England were required to quarantine at own cost.

 


Official Resources

⇒ http://www.moh.gov.gm/covid-19-report/

  • The Gambia’s Ministry of Health Website
  • Regular updates are posted to the Ministry of Health’s and the State House of The Gambia’s official Facebook Page.
  • The Gambian government has set up a free national hotline for COVID-19 concerns and questions, which can be reached by dialing 1025 within The Gambia.
  • Additional information can be found by monitoring Gambian news sources as well as official Gambian government social media pages, statements, and press releases.

COVID-19 Restrictions

  • Movement Restrictions

    • Is a curfew in place? No
    • Are there restrictions on intercity or interstate travel? No

     

    Transportation Options

    • Are commercial flights operating? Yes
    • Is public transportation operating? Yes

Economic Measures

Key Policy Responses as of June 3, 2021

 

FISCAL
  • In mid-March, the authorities prepared a US$9 million (0.5 percent of GDP) COVID-19 action plan, for which they had already obtained grant financing. The government reallocated GMD 500 million (0.6 percent of GDP) from the current budget to the Ministry of Health and other relevant public entities for containment measures to prevent and control the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. The government also launched a student relief fund to support Gambian students abroad and a GMD 800 million (US$15.8 million) nation-wide food distribution program to benefit 84 percent of the households. In addition, 2,000 tons of fertilizer were distributed to support the needs of farmers. These actions benefitted from technical support from the country’s development partners, including WFP and FAO, and are subject to enhanced oversight by the National Assembly.The supplementary appropriation (SAP) approved by the National Assembly in July included GMD 2.3 billion in additional measures. The SAP included a GMD 737-million relief package to various sectors, including the municipal councils, public entities, the tourism sector, the media, and GMD 224.3 million in additional food assistance delivered through WFP for four months starting March 2021. The SAP also provisioned for GMD 250 million in additional health spending and GMB 854.3 million for targeted public investment outlays to fill critical infrastructure gaps and support the economy. RCF and CCRT financing from the IMF (see below) helped to cover some of these costs.The 2021 budget includes GMD 500 million for spending contingencies to address emergencies that could arise from the surge in COVID-19 cases.

    Donor agencies, including the UNDP, WFP, WHO, FAO, UNICEF, UNFP and UNICEF, have focused financial assistance (about US$1.5 million cumulatively, in 2020) to strengthen social assistance support for programs aimed at vulnerable groups impacted by COVID-19 by improving communication, safeguarding nutrition, and ensuring food security. The WFP provided technical support and training on targeting, design, and distribution of the government food relief program, and it is also working on a food distribution program. On April 2, The World Bank approved a US$10 million grant for the COVID-19 Response and Preparedness Project to enhance case detection, tracing, prevention, and social distancing communication as well as the provision of equipment to isolation and treatment centers.The WB accelerated the rollout of its Social Safety Net project to help mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on the most vulnerable households. The European Commission provided, at end-April, a 9-million Euro COVID-19 support to The Gambia and intended to provide an additional 5.5million Euro financing in Q42020 but it was eventually postponed to 2021.Many of the other donors will also be expanding their social assistance support through cash transfers using mobile money and direct payments targeted to poor households, new mothers and farmers using existing databases of past recipients, village lists and voter rolls. The World Bank approved on April 19, 2021, an US$8-million grant to help finance the COVID-19 vaccines supply and rollout in the country.

    The Gambia Revenue Authority extended, by two months that expired in end-May, the filing of the 2019 annual tax return and the payment of final 2019 tax, as well as the filing of the first quarter 2020 declaration and the payment of the first quarter installment.It also revised down its 2020 annual revenue target by about 2.2 percent of GDP. However, revenue performance yielded a much lower revenue loss than anticipated.

MONETARY AND FINANCIAL
  • Domestic financial conditions tightened in early 2020 but have eased since late May. The average yield on the most utilized 364-day T-bills went above 11.5 percent in late May 2020 and declined thereafter to around 3.97 percent by June 2, 2021, well below its end-2019 and end-December 2020 levels of 7.5 percent and 8.4 percent, respectively. The GMD 600 million 3-year T-bond issuance on December 7, which the Central Bank intends to reopen for GMD 50 million on December 23 with a yield of 9 percent has reduced banks' appetite for short-term T-bills causing the interest rate to rise. Encouraged by the drop in headline inflation from 7.7 percent at end-2019 to 5.6 percent in April 2020, the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG) during its monetary policy committee meeting of May 28, reduced the monetary policy rate by 2 percentage points to 10 percent, a cumulative 2.5 percentage points reduction since end-2019. The Bank also reduced the reserve requirement from 15 to 13 percent, thus, releasing close to GMD 700 million (US$ 14 million or 0.7 percent of GDP) liquidity to the banks. The CBG maintained the policy rate at 10 percent in its monetary policy committee sittings of August 26-27, and December 2-3, 2020. Meanwhile, the CBG had used GMD 855 million of its retained earnings from 2019 to increase its statutory capital and settle some of the central government's liabilities to the Central Bank, thus providing additional fiscal space to the government. The CBG is also actively monitoring developments in the financial sector. It remains in close contact with the commercial banks and stands ready to respond to the situation as inflationary pressures warrant. Additional measures are available to provide emergency liquidity support if needed, together with increased intensity and frequency of supervision to address any financial stability concerns. As per financial sector indicators at end-December 2020, non-preforming loans of banks edged up relative to end-2019 but capital adequacy and liquidity indicators remained strong. The CBG successfully hosted a remote IMF 2020 safeguards assessment mission, which found good progress since the last assessment in 2018. The 2019 CBG audit is about to be completed with a clean audit opinion. The CBG has also prepared a strategic plan based on the 2019 FSSR recommendations, which it will implement along with the recommendations from the 2020 safeguards assessment.

EXCHANGE RATES AND BALANCE OF PAYMENTS
  • The CBG stepped up the monitoring of banks’ FX net open positions but has not imposed any specific exchange measures. It is committed to maintaining a flexible exchange rate regime to help absorb balance-of-payments (BOP) shocks.

    On April 15, 2020, the Executive Board of the IMF approved a US$21.3 million for The Gambia under the Rapid Credit Facility (RCF), which was on-lent to the Treasury. The RCF support supplements earlier financing from the IMF under a 39-month US$47.1 million Extended Credit Facility (ECF) arrangement approved on March 23, 2020. To accommodate the worsened BOP outlook, the IMF also agreed to modify the performance criteria on net usable international reserves and net domestic assets of the CBG under the ECF-supported program. The Gambia has also benefited from debt relief under the catastrophe containment window of the Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) approved on April 13, 2020, with an expected total relief of US$ 10.8 million, if resources are identified to extend the initiative for 24 months (US$ 8.3million of the expected relief have already been approved). The amounts already approved were in three tranches. The first tranche of US$2.9 million (corresponding to debt service due to the Fund in the first six months covered by the initiative, April 14–October 13, 2020) and the second tranche of US$3 million ( corresponding to the debt service due to the Fund during October 14, 2020–April 13, 2021) have been already approved for delivery, while the Third tranche US$ 2.4 million covering April 14–October 13, 2020 was approved in April.The Gambia is also seeking debt service deferral under the G20 debt service suspension initiative, which provides US$4 million (from the creditors that have already endorsed the initiative)in 2020 and could provide up to US$3 million in 2021.

    On January 15, 2021 the IMF Executive Board completed the first review of The Gambia’ performance under the program supported under the Extended Credit Facility arrangement and approved a SDR20 million augmentation of access to be disbursed after completion of the first and second reviews of the program to help address the additional balance-of-payments and fiscal (health and social support) needs created by the surge in COVID-19 cases and support the post-pandemic recovery. As a result, the disbursement associated with the first review was augmented from SDR5 million to SDR 20 million (US$28.8 million).


Civic Freedom Tracker

STATE OF EMERGENCY

The President declares a 21-day state of "public emergency" on account of the coronavirus pandemic. (See primary source or citation here)

Type: order
Date Introduced: 18 Mar 2020
Issue(s): Emergency

share with Whatsapp
share with Telegram
Send by email
Share in Reddit
powered by social2s

Newsletter

Coronavirus is spreading and so is misinformation about it. Get the facts delivered to your inbox daily.

Developed & Maintained by

  

Supported by

  

Data provided by

   

  

© 2020 Designed By PANEOTECH

While every effort is made to provide accurate and complete information, COVID Watch Africa cannot guarantee that this webpage is free of inaccuracies and reflects the most up-to-date versions. Although this database contains information of a legal nature, it does not constitute legal advice as to the current operative laws and regulations. Please note that COVID Watch Africa accepts no responsibility or liability whatsoever about the information on the third-party sites