- Delivering his inaugural speech today, Mayor Talib Ahmed Bensouda promised to lobby for more autonomy from the central government in a bid to speed up developments.
Mr. Bensouda made the statement while being sworn in for his second term as mayor of the Kanifing Municipality following his victory in the polls.
“We will continue to ask for more decentralization of functions from the central government to take more responsibility for the needs of the people of KM. To serve our people better and more efficiently we will also seek to realize the changes to the relevant legislation so that the council can be granted more autonomy. We invite the government to let go of more authority to KMC so that we can ease its development burden. This will enable the government to focus more on increasing its oversight function, to guide us, and to assist us increase our with more capacity to serve our people. “
Mr Bensouda also said: “Over the next 4 years we will also call on the government to be our partner and our collaborator. We will do our utmost to work with the government so that together we can demonstrate to the people that through unity we can deliver even faster development.”
The lord mayor said he will call on His Excellency to seek his support and to extend the collaborative hand of the council.
He also thanked, the voters as well as the entire residents of the Kanifing Municipality for his re-election and his trust in him while pledging to focus on. key priority areas such as road construction, and affordable housing among others
“Thank you for believing in our vision. Thank you for accepting and validating our plans for 2023 – 2027.”
