Are you planning on having more than one wife and multiple children, well, you may want to reconsider as The Gambia might be on the verge of introducing a three-child policy.

Many were startled by Information Minister D.A Jawo’s revelation during a recent press conference that The Gambia might adopt the policy as proposed by ECOWAS.

“The government is going to consider it but we are yet to take a position,” he told journalists.

However, he said as an ECOWAS member state, the country might be compelled to adopt the policy, which is likely to generate a massive public outcry.

This three-child policy is believed to be the regional bloc’s response to control the population explosion in West Africa. Burkina Faso’s Speaker of the Parliament Salifo Diallo said the idea is to cut the birth rate in half by 2030 in the region which is believed to have the highest fertility rate in the world.

He called for countries to adopt measures including universal access to family planning, improved education for women and better health care for children, to bring about "a rapid, voluntary decline" in the birth rate.

ECOWAS is yet to decide on the proposal, but some member countries are already busy selling the proposal to their neighbours.