Three years after the launch of the National Employment Policy (NEP) and its implementation framework, the National Employment Action Plan (NEAP) 2022-2026, the government is still unable to provide a definitive account of how many jobs have been created under the initiative, casting a shadow over one of its most ambitious development programmes.
The policy pledged to generate 150,000 jobs by 2026 through a mix of entrepreneurship, private sector expansion, and targeted sectoral growth. Yet with less than a year remaining before the policy cycle concludes, that headline target remains unverified.
"For now, officially we can't make a statement on the absolute number of jobs created," said Fabba Jammeh, Director of Employment at the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment, in an interview.
The acknowledgement highlights a deeper institutional challenge: the absence of a fully operational system to track employment outcomes, despite clear legal and policy provisions requiring such mechanisms. The NEP was conceived within a broader legislative and policy ecosystem intended to modernise The Gambia's labour market.
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Central to this framework is the Labour Act 2023, which explicitly mandates the establishment of an employment service registry. Section 81(1) states: "The Commissioner [of Labour] shall establish and maintain an employment service registry to bring together persons offering and seeking employment at the Department of Labour."
Subsection (2) goes further, requiring active promotion of the registry through measures such as maintaining it as an effective job-matching platform, encouraging employers to report vacancies and ensuring job seekers register their availability.
In principle, this registry, alongside the planned Labour Market and Migration Information System (LMMIS), was meant to provide real-time data on employment trends, vacancies, and placements. In practice, however, these systems remain either incomplete or underutilised. The system, which is expected to serve as the backbone of labour market intelligence, is still under development three years into the policy's implementation.
"We have the labour market and migration information system that is linked to the job centres, although for now it's not yet fully operational," Jammeh said. "We are hoping that this year we'll be able to complete the development of this platform."
The delay has left policymakers without a centralised, continuous, and verifiable source of employment data, undermining the ability to assess progress against targets. The NEP 2022-2026 was not conceived in isolation. It reflects The Gambia's alignment with a range of international, regional, and national commitments.
At the global level, the policy draws directly from Sustainable Development Goal 8, which emphasises "decent work and economic growth" as a foundation for inclusive development. It also responds to the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, which reaffirmed employment as a central pillar of economic policy.
Regionally, the NEP incorporates recommendations from the African Union Summit of September 2004, which urged member states to create enabling environments for employment in line with International Labour Organisation Convention 122 on employment policy.
Domestically, the policy is aligned with the National Development Plan (2018-2021), particularly Strategic Priority 8, which positions the private sector and trade as engines of growth, transformation, and job creation.
The policy's vision is clear: to achieve sustainable employment, reduce poverty, and improve living standards through productive and decent work. Its mission emphasises strengthening job creation within a conducive economic environment, while its overarching goal targets poverty reduction, income equality, and youth employment.
The urgency behind the NEP is underscored by The Gambia's labour market realities. Data from the 2018 Gambia Labour Force Survey paints a glaring picture: out of a population of 2.3 million, more than 234,000 people were unemployed, while nearly 591,000 were outside the labour force entirely. Only 431,168 individuals were recorded as employed.
Urban areas accounted for a significantly higher share of employment (65.5%) compared to rural regions (34.5%), highlighting geographic disparities that persist today.
Youth unemployment, in particular, remains a defining challenge, compounded by rapid population growth and increasing numbers of school graduates entering a labour market with limited absorption capacity.
"Job creation is particularly challenging due to a narrow industrial base and limited training access, especially for youth in rural areas," Jammeh said.
He noted that most technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions are concentrated in the Greater Banjul Area, forcing young people from rural regions to migrate in search of skills and opportunities.
"This means most of the young people who have completed grade 9 or grade 12 in rural areas will always come to the Kombos to find training opportunities," he said.
Even where training exists, affordability remains a barrier, limiting access for many young Gambians.
In response to these challenges, the government has rolled out a range of initiatives aimed at stimulating employment.
Job fairs, for instance, have been organised in Brikama, Kanifing, and Mansakonko, providing platforms for direct engagement between employers and job seekers.
"These job fairs have proven successful, typically registering over 300 jobs within just two days," Jammeh said.
Five job centres have also been established across regions, including the West Coast, North Bank, Lower River, and Central River regions. These centres provide labour market information, assist with applications, and connect job seekers to opportunities through both digital systems and traditional methods. However, without a unified tracking mechanism, the cumulative impact of these initiatives remains unclear.
The government has also pursued international labour migration as a strategy for employment generation. Bilateral agreements have been signed with Saudi Arabia, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates.
"Currently, approximately 200 workers, primarily females for domestic work, have been recruited under the Saudi scheme," Jammeh said, adding that efforts are underway to expand participation and include male workers in roles such as driving and gardening.
Discussions with Saudi authorities have also focused on skills recognition to ensure Gambian workers are competitive in sectors like construction. In the absence of the LMMIS, the government has relied heavily on labour force surveys conducted by the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) to assess trends.
Surveys have been completed in 2022, 2023, and 2025, with another currently underway for 2026. While these surveys provide snapshots of the labour market, they are not designed to directly measure the outcomes of specific policies such as the NEP.
"Data from various labour force surveys spanning 2022 to 2026 will help in assessing job creation," Jammeh noted, while acknowledging their limitations.
This reliance on periodic surveys, rather than continuous administrative data, has created a gap between policy implementation and measurable outcomes. The NEAP 2022-2026 was costed at D265.25 million, with D65 million required in its first year alone.
To meet these financial demands, the government proposed a resource mobilisation strategy combining domestic funding, international partnerships with organisations such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), NGO contributions, and private sector participation.
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Coordination was to be led by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment and the Department of Labour, working in collaboration with the Platform for Employment Networking Dialogue and Action (PENDA).
The framework envisaged regular quarterly and annual progress reports to ensure accountability and transparency. However, the absence of comprehensive employment data raises questions about the effectiveness of these reporting mechanisms.
As the NEP approaches its final year, discussions are already underway about what comes next. Officials say lessons learned from the current policy cycle will inform its successor. Yet the lack of verifiable data risks undermining that process.
Without clear evidence of what has worked and what has not, future policymaking may be forced to rely on assumptions rather than analysis. The stakes are high. Employment is not only an economic issue but also a social and political one, with implications for poverty, migration, and national stability.
The government has repeatedly acknowledged that job creation cannot be achieved through "fragmented and isolated interventions," but requires sustained, coordinated efforts across sectors. Three years on, that coordination remains a work in progress.
The NEP was conceived as a transformative blueprint for employment in The Gambia. Whether it ultimately delivers on that promise may depend less on its ambitions and more on the systems put in place to measure them.
For now, the absence of a clear answer to a simple question, as to how many jobs have been created, continues to define the policy's most significant shortcoming.
