The senior management at the Social Security and Housing Finance Cooperation (SSHFC) headed by their deputy Managing Director Saibatou Faal on Tuesday handed over the keys to the Sulayman Junkung Jammeh Housing Estate, to the Vice President and Minister of Women’s Affairs Dr Aja Isatou Njie-Saidy at a ceremony held at the Office of the Vice-President, in State House,
Mr Faal told VP Njie-Saidy that the estate was constructed to the tune of D86 million in Kanilai by his institution and the handing-over of the Sulayman Jammeh Housing Estate keys to the Vice President marked the completion of the first phase of the project, which houses two three-floor storey buildings with 18 rooms each and 21 three-bedroom bungalows.
The project, according to Mr Faal, took off in 2008 in line with government’s objective of meeting the housing needs of the citizens.
Speaking at the ceremony on behalf of President Jammeh, the vice president thanked the SSHFC for providing the required services to Gambians, noting that the SSHFC was set up by the government to provide social security and housing for Gambians at affordable prices.
“We thank you for that, because we cannot talk about a city-state today without really appreciating the efforts of the SSFHC,” she said, while commending President Jammeh for what he has done to bring more development to the country such as good infrastructure, especially in the form of roads, as well as the support he is giving to the SSFHC.
VP Njie-Saidy also said: “We know that you have more lands across the country wherein some places because of the land tenure system it took you a long time before you were able to acquire a land.”
The vice-president reiterated government’s commitment to helping in actualising the vision of the president in his efforts at transforming The Gambia into a city-state.
“Thank you for completing Phase One of Sulayman Junkung Housing Estate and we are looking forward to Phase Two or Three - possibly because we need to see really The Gambia move to a city-state,” VP Njie-Saidy noted.
Speaking earlier, the chairman of the Law Reform Commission at the Ministry of Justice, Henry Carrol, said the project is highly commendable in view of the fact that “it will go a long way in providing shelter for most underprivileged Gambians”, as well as making accommodation more accessible to the Gambian citizenry.
Harry Sambou, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence, chaired the occasion.