The payment ceremony was held at the Ministry of Finance in Banjul on Friday.
Demba Gaye, the vice chairman of board of directors of GPA, said there has been increment in this dividend in the past few years. According to him, the first dividend payment of D 20 million was increased by more than 100% in the year 2019; and now for the year 2020, "we are paying D95 million, an increase of more than 90%".
Mr. Gaye said this is a testament to the “unrelenting hard work and diligent output of management and staff, and of course under the watchful eye of a dynamic board of directors.”
“We need to hardly emphasise that the past years were not without their own challenges both internal and other extraneous factors, coupled with the fact that the authority continues to sustain the financially non-performing subsidiary companies such as the Gambia Ferry Services (GFS)".
Vice Chairman Gaye, said the efforts have been made towards the realisation of expansion of the Port’s container storage and berthing capacities.
He thanked the government of The Gambia through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs for creating the appropriate and stable environment to carry out their duties.
"We will therefore continue to rely on this support particularly to unbundle the subsidiary institutions such as the Gambia Ferries and Shipyard to allow the Port to concentrate on its core activity and contribute more meaningfully towards socio economic development of the country.
Seedy Keita, minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, encouraged the management of the Gambia Ports Authority to continue the “good work” they are doing for the best interest of the country.
The Finance minister thus called on the other government parastatals to emulate the Gambia Ports Authority for the betterment of the country.