Claim: Gambia’s poverty level is at 60 per cent

Source: Nenneh Cheyassin Secka, Vice President of the Golden Era Party

Verdict: False

On October 2, 2025, Gambian philanthropist Nenneh Cheyassin Secka, who also serves as Vice President of the newly formed Golden Era Party, appeared on the Sunu Reew program on Eye Africa TV. She was joined by the NPP Deputy Campaign Manager and UDP’s Nyawuru Komma.

During the program, discussions touched on corruption, the recent Auditor General’s report, her party’s agenda, among other issues.

Nenneh’s claim in verbatim

“In 2016, the Gambia poverty level was at 20 percent, today we are at 60 percent. 60 percent of Gambians are living below poverty. This is a fact.”

See the full broadcast and the part relevant to this article can be found between minute 1:30 and 45 marks of the program.

Fact- Check

Available data does not support Nenneh’s claim.

• The World Bank’s Poverty and Equity Brief (2023) shows that The Gambia’s poverty headcount, measured against the national poverty line, stood at 53.4% in 2020.
  
• Similarly, the Gambia Bureau of Statistics (GBoS) reported that 53.4% of Gambians were living below the national poverty line as of 2020.
  
• No official data places the poverty rate at 60% in recent years.
  
• On the contrary, earlier World Bank data showed that poverty declined gradually from 48.6% in 2015 to 45.8% in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic reversed gains, pushing the rate up to 53.4% in 2020.

In short, while poverty in The Gambia remains high and is a serious challenge, the verified figure is 53.4% — not 60% as claimed.

What is Poverty Level?

The “poverty level” (or poverty rate) refers to the percentage of a country’s population living below the national poverty line, the minimum income required to meet basic needs such as food, shelter, health, and education

Each country sets its own poverty line depending on living standards, but international organizations like the World Bank also use global benchmarks such as $2.15 per day (2017 PPP) to measure extreme poverty.

Verdict

Nenneh Cheyassin Secka’s statement that “60 percent of Gambians are living in poverty” is not accurate. The latest verified data from both the World Bank and GBoS places the poverty level at 53.4% (2020).