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Claim: Neneh Cheyassin Secka, a philanthropist turned politician and Vice Presidential candidate of the opposition Golden Era Party (GEP), claimed that The Gambia is poorer today than it was decades ago. 

Verdict: False. Available economic data show that The Gambia’s economy has expanded significantly over the past decades. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has grown from less than $1bn to approximately $2.5bn in 2025, contradicting the claim that the country is poorer today than it was 30 years ago.

Full Text

Speaking on Tonya Kesso, a weekly current affairs programme aired on The Fatu Network, Neneh Cheyassin Secka stated that The Gambia is poorer today than it was three decades ago.

“I can tell you Gambia is poorer today than it was 30 years ago, and the average Gambian household income has dropped significantly,” she asserted.

During the interview, Secka did not provide data or evidence to support her claims. 

The assertions went unchallenged and were repeated several times. Given the potential for public misinformation, DUBAWA conducted a fact-check to verify the accuracy of these claims.

Verification

GDP Trends (2016–2025)

DUBAWA analysed The Gambia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) trends from 2016 to 2025, covering the period before the 2017 political transition, the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the post-pandemic recovery phase.

Following the democratic transition in 2017, real GDP growth more than doubled compared to historical averages. Although COVID-19 caused a sharp slowdown in 2020, the economy rebounded strongly.

Recovery was driven by infrastructure investments, tourism revival, and sustained remittance inflows. By 2025, real GDP growth is estimated at 6.0%, with nominal GDP reaching approximately USD 2.5 billion.

A table showing GDP growth in The Gambia from 2016–2025.

Poverty Data

Research showed that in 2016, Gambia’s national poverty rate was 48.6% based on a 2015/2016 national poverty line survey. From 2016 to 2025, The Gambia’s poverty trend has not been stable due to various factors, including the coronavirus pandemic, but it has now improved to 41.7% of the population living below the national poverty line.

According to the World Bank’s Spring 2025 Economic Update, the poverty rate is trending downward due to accelerating economic growth (projected at 5.7%) and moderating inflation. A recent projection indicates that the national poverty line is 20.4% as of 2026.

The World Bank Poverty and Equity Brief (2023) reports that 53.4% of Gambians lived below the national poverty line in 2020. The Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) confirms the same figure for 2020. No official data indicate that The Gambia’s poverty rate is 60% in recent years.

Earlier World Bank data indicate that poverty declined from 48.6% in 2015 to 45.8% in 2019.

The COVID-19 pandemic reversed these gains, pushing poverty back up to 53.4% in 2020

Human Development Ranking

According to the latest global ranking published on 6 May 2025, The Gambia ranks 170th out of 193 countries worldwide

Trends show: Rankings between 175th and 174th from 2019–2022. An improvement of four places in 2023, moving to 170th. 

Since the change of government in 2017, Gambia has undergone a remarkable transformation in infrastructure, particularly in access to electricity, with the country now having a standard road network.

Conclusion

Based on evidence from credible sources, the claim that The Gambia is poorer today than it was decades ago is false. The country’s GDP has grown substantially, increasing from less than $1bn to over $2.5bn in 2025, with projections of $2.6bn in 2026. 

While poverty remains a serious challenge, available data do not support the assertion that The Gambia is economically worse off than it was 30 years ago.