By Ramatoulie Jawo
The National Assembly Select Committee on Monitoring the Implementation of Government Projects has called upon the Gambia Port Authority (GPA) to address ongoing delays in the port expansion project. The committee sought clarification on the causes of the setbacks affecting the initiative.
The GPA had entered into a concession agreement with Albayrak Group, a Turkish company, for the port extension project, which was originally scheduled to commence on January 10, 2025.During discussions with the committee, GPA Managing Director Ousman Jobarteh confirmed that as of January 10, neither party had fully met the obligations stipulated in the agreement. He explained that the outstanding items, referred to as “conditions precedent,” remained unresolved on both sides.
“So by the time we were in January, the investor, from the statistics that we gathered, was close to 90% achievement, but on the side of the government, we were hovering around 70%, and there were three issues that were also important to go into effect. Principle among them was to consider and approve a financial model that was supposed to be submitted by the investor, that would show how they plan to invest and rehabilitate Banjul within the six-year period, and in the financial model, the agreement on certain revenues that were to be retained from the net profit, that we agreed in the concession agreement that should be put in an escrow account, purposely for investment in Sanyang, because it was delivered on our side that certain percentage of the net profit should be retained in an escrow account, where we manage both so that when the investment in Sanyang becomes due, we can fall back on those funds as reserve to invest in Sanyang,” he explained.
He said What that would mean is that both parties have agreed that they will forgo any dividend in Banjul and put that money for investment in Sanyang.
He highlighted that another critical issue that remained outstanding was the conclusion of a shareholder’s agreement. He said the concession contract is a model in two ways, as they serve as the landlord in terms of granting the facility and also as a shareholder in the company.
“Now, the concession agreement was signed, but the shareholder agreement was yet to be concluded because some of these elements needed to be factored in the shareholder’s agreement,” he said.
He noted that another pending task for the government is the transfer of operational staff.
According to the concession agreement, it was agreed that the staff involved in the operations—out of a total workforce of approximately 1,250 at GPA, around 931 were identified as directly engaged in operational duties—would be transferred to the company. This transfer would occur under the same terms and conditions of employment to ensure job security.
Managing Director Jobarteh emphasized that the process of transferring these staff members is delicate and requires extensive engagement with them, which has not yet been completed.“So what we ended up negotiating with the investor is to allow a three-month transition from effectiveness, so that their team will work with the GPA team to manage this whole staff transfer, because there are a lot of activities. One has to do with the law that every individual staff has to consent to move into this new arrangement. And that involves a lot of preparation, explanation and engagement,” he said.
He explained that they have conducted staff engagement sessions on three separate occasions, all of which were recorded. However, the actual decision to transfer must be made individually. Each staff member needs to fully understand the conditions they would face, whether transitioning to the company or remaining with GPA, so that the choice to move is entirely personal.
He expressed confidence that, with clear explanations, employees would realize that transferring to the new company under the same terms and conditions ensures both job security and continuity of service.
He further noted that the remaining unresolved issue is the aspect of the concession agreement requiring the investor to make an upfront cash payment for the movable assets.“We call it the purchase fee for all the movable assets; it’s like the concessionaire when they come in, all the machines that are working in the port that they found there, we put a value on them, and they have to pay for the cash because they are coming now to operate the port, and those were assets that belong to the ports. So we agreed that they would pay the price for that. So that assessment also took time. But thankfully it has now been concluded with them,” he said.
Other factors include acquiring the land in Sanyang, designated for constructing the port’s infrastructure. According to Mr. Jobarteh, this process has taken considerable time and remains ongoing, as it has not yet been finalized.