Gambia needs to prioritise its strategic regional trade infrastructure Says Minister Sillah

Ebrima Sillah was speaking recently at a dissemination forum on the Infrastructure Sector Assessment Study (InfraSAP) held at the Bakadaji Hotel in Kotu.

The event was basically meant to identify major investment gaps, opportunities so as to improve resource allocation and private financing.

Minister Sillah acknowledged that the need to render Africa as the new frontier for competitive trade investment is urgent, citing priority areas such as road networks, the Banjul International Airport, the Port of Banjul, River Transport, the Basse Freight Logistics Platform (Basse Dry port) and the Trans-Gambia Corridor Special Economic Zone.

“The Gambia Infrastructure Sector Assessment Study conducted by the World Bank presented a diagnostic assessment of Gambia’s transport sector to inform the government’s strategic planning of the sector.”

He assured that government will therefore continue during the next five years to consolidate efforts and implement strategic infrastructure projects in the areas of Transport and Infrastructure in order to catalyse growth and tap into the many opportunities offered by the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and other developments.

To that end, Minister Sillah maintained that government is fully committed to building roads, river and ports and air transport infrastructure as expeditiously as possible.

“To do this, my Ministry will adopt and implement a multi-modal approach to the transport sector in order to create the right balance between river, port, air and rail transport, which will also create significant opportunities for regional linkages/connectivity, and position the country to be more competitive.” he said.

 He observed that a guiding policy tool for the implementation of this multi-modal approach is the National Transport Policy (2018-2027) which, he said, has already been developed while the Recovery Focused -National Development Plan (2023- 2027) will constitute an important basis for the implementation of the policy.

He disclosed that support by the World Bank to fund the Infrastructure Assessment Study (InfraSAP) for The Gambia’s Transport Sector would therefore serve as an added value to beef-up ‘our policy frameworks’ for the strategic development of the sector.