Government of The Gambia

The presence in an industry of a low-cost carrier with a low-profit margin, Capital A as one of the main players in Asian region for airlines operators have puts extra effort into risk identification and management in safeguarding it business sustainability. A Risk Management Committee is an integral part of the Group's corporate governance structure, helping it to achieve its primary goals of protecting stakeholders' interests and realizing long-term shareholder value. The CEO, the President of Airlines, and other Board members have assured the Board that the risk management and internal control systems are functioning suitably and successfully in all relevant aspects. Action plans are being created for areas that need improvement, and the corresponding heads of department are keeping an eye on the dates of execution. Through its Board Committees, the Board also gets quarterly reports on important issues related to internal control and risk management. The Board believes that the Group risk management and internal control systems were functioning suitably and successfully, based on assurances from management and reports from the Board Committees. This document describes the steps that Capital A took in terms of risk management viewpoints both before and after the COVID-19 epidemic.

[Figure: see text]This paper conducted an experimental investigation on the effects of dispersed basalt fiber (BF) on lightweight expanded clay concrete (LWECC). The objective is to evaluate the strength, density of LWECC containing dispersed BF with comparison on the strength derived from research of similar work. Experiments were performed on LWECC 100 × 100 × 400 mm prism for flexure and 100 × 100 × 100 mm cube for compression and split tensile tests. Additives were added to enhance the concrete strength. The compressive strength [Formula: see text], density ([Formula: see text], flexural strength [Formula: see text], split tensile strength [Formula: see text] were obtained from LWECC containing 0%, 0.9%, and 1.6% BF, respectively. The experimental results on day 28 show that [Formula: see text] recorded the highest at 1.6% BF content, and lowest at 0% BF content while with incorporation of 0.9%BF, the [Formula: see text] of ECC increased by 121.82%, with incorporation of 1.6% BF the [Formula: see text] of ECC increased by 162.79% and ECC containing 1.6% BF showed ρ of 1410 Kg/m3 while the [Formula: see text] is highest with 1.6% BF at 6.54 MPa followed by 0.9% BF at 4.01 MPa and lowest at 0% BF at 3.72 MPa. The [Formula: see text] is higher with 1.6 BF at 5.41 MPa. Incorporation of BF in ECC proved to have positive effect of ECC.

ObjectivesThe objective of the present study was to evaluate how effective tobacco tax increase has been in increasing price of tobacco products and reducing tobacco consumption in the Gambia. In addition, it tests the hypothesis that tobacco tax revenue grows while tobacco consumption decreases as a result of tax and price increase.SettingThe study is designed at the macroeconomic level to examine the import of tobacco products and revenue collected from tobacco taxation in a low-income setting.ParticipantsThe participants of this study are the government officials employed in the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MoFEA), the Gambia and the Gambia Revenue Authority, who are in charge of planning and implementing the tobacco tax policy in the Gambia.InterventionsThe study includes 2 consecutive interventions in tobacco tax policy in the Gambia. The first intervention was moving the tax base for the uniform specific excise tax on cigarettes from weight to pack of cigarettes in 2013. The second intervention involved increasing the excise and the environmental tax on tobacco products in 2014.Primary and secondary outcome measuresThe primary outcome measures were the cost, insurance and freight value and the price of tobacco products. The secondary outcome measures included the import of tobacco products and tobacco tax revenue.ResultsIn 2013–2014, the Gambia MoFEA raised the specific excise rate, which increased price, reduced consumption and generated significantly more government revenue from tobacco products. This is a clear evidence of the win-win outcome of raising tobacco tax. In addition, the Gambia has set the example of harmonising tax rates between tobacco products that reduces the substitution between tobacco products.ConclusionsThe Gambia presents the best practice in tobacco taxation. There is need for documenting more country-specific evidence on the win-win outcome of raising tobacco tax.

Routine use of pneumococcal conjugate vaccines (PCVs) in developing countries is expected to lead to a significant reduction in childhood deaths. However, PCVs have been associated with replacement disease with non-vaccine serotypes. We established a population-based surveillance system to document the direct and indirect impact of PCVs on the incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) and radiological pneumonia in those aged 2 months and older in The Gambia, and to monitor changes in serotype-specific IPD. Here we describe how this surveillance system was set up and is being operated as a partnership between the Medical Research Council Unit and the Gambian Government. This surveillance system is expected to provide crucial information for immunisation policy and serves as a potential model for those introducing routine PCV vaccination in diverse settings.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most common cancer in The Gambia. Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is endemic, with 15% to 20% of the population being chronic carriers, whereas hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalence is low. We recruited 216 incident cases of HCC and 408 controls from three sites. HBV carriage was present in 61% (129/211) of HCC patients and 16% (64/402) of controls, whereas 19% (36/191) of HCC patients were HCV seropositive compared with 3% (11/382) of controls. HCC patients with HCV were notably older and were more likely to be female than those with HBV. Increased HCC risk was strongly associated with chronic HBV (odds ratio, 16.7; 95% CI, 9.7-28.7), HCV (16.7; 6.9-40.1), and dual infection (35.3; 3.9-323). We interpret the additive nature of risk with coinfection as representative of HBV and HCV acting primarily through shared steps in the multistage process of hepatocarcinogenesis. HCV infection was not observed among younger participants, suggesting a possible cohort effect. Reasons for the striking age and gender differences in HCC associated with HBV compared with HCV are unclear, but transmission patterns and age at exposure may be factors. In conclusion, in a standardized evaluation of well-characterized study participants from The Gambia, most cases of HCC are attributable to HBV (57%), but HCV adds a significant fraction (20%), especially among older patients and females. If HCV transmission is not perpetuated in future cohorts, focusing available resources on HB vaccination efforts could greatly ameliorate a major cause of cancer death in sub-Saharan Africa.