By Lamin Kujabi
In its latest weekly meeting last Thursday, cabinet considered and officially declared Sanyang in Kombo South, West Coast Region, as the site for the development of a new deep seaport for Gambia. This came about after Mr Ebrima Sillah, Minister of Transport, Works and Infrastructure presented the matter before cabinet consideration and approval.
According to Information Minister Jammeh, who was updating the press about the outcome of the meeting, Minister Sillah explained that the strategic objectives for the establishment of the Sanyang deep seaport is the need for the country to possess the appropriate infrastructure and facilities capable of handling current and forecast traffic level specially in relation to the prospects of oil exploration and potential for transit shipment traffic.
Regarding the financial implication, Minister Sillah reported that the initiative will be based on a concession agreement for a period of 35 years. Part of equity contribution from government will involve kind contribution of land in Sanyang.
All affected property owners will be compensated and all land allocation in the area have been ceased immediately to allow for a quick evaluation of affected properties.
The formation of a sub-cabinet committee for this purpose was recommended.
The Minister also presented a paper on the impact of port operation on the course of doing business.
Petroleum and Energy
Further into the cabinet meeting, the Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Abdoulie Jobe was reported to have presented on the government-stakeholder dialogue on the strategy to mitigate risk to power supply. He was seeking cabinet approval to implement key recommendations of the dialogue.
Commenting on the rationale, the Minister explained that there are many unfolding events that should serve as a wake-up call including NAWEC’s challenging financial situation as a result of Covid 19 and Russia-Ukraine war. The minister was seeking consideration and approval for the following: NAWEC to commence negotiation with a view to favorably increasing generation of power and including the transmission line upgrading to evacuate the power; for the successful negotiation to be presented to the cabinet for approval prior to NAWEC to any other institution signing to the existing power purchase agreement otherwise (PPA). Having been subjected to a very thorough discussion the paper was considered to be long overdue and therefore the paper was granted request that it solicited.