ECONOMY

The Gambia really is a development country. The Bruto National Product (BNP) is 350 US dollars per annum/per capita. The economy of The Gambia is mainly an agricultural economy. Around 80% of the population therefor works in agriculture.

The ground nut (peanut) is by far the main export product. Along the coasts tourism and the fishing industry is also very important.

The Gambia has little to no industry and is therefor bound to import just about everything. This makes The Gambia not a cheap country for the inhabitants. A large part of the population is officially unemployed, although some people (mostly men) have several temporary jobs (i.e. harvesting peanuts, selling home-grown fruits en vegetables alongside the road).

Tourism in The Gambia is on the rise in which the English form the bigger part. But also people from The Netherlands, Belgium and Scandinavia find their way annually into The Gambia. In 1992 The Gambia had 66.000 tourist while in 1967 there were only 55 hotel beds to be found in the whole of Gambia.

A new and worrying phenomena in The Gambia is sex tourism,

in February 2003 Terre des Hommes archived the facts and formed an alarming report. In turn the Gambian government has declared war on all paedophiles, both locally and among the tourists.

Positive elements are the slightly improving import numbers, mainly in the construction department, and the rise of income ex-pat Gambians generate in foreign countries.