By Ramatoulie Jawo
The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), in partnership with Sahel Executive Education and the Development Perspective United Kingdom, conducted a three-day master class training on public-private partnerships (PPP) asset recycling on Saturday.
During his address at the opening ceremony, Abdoulie Touray, the President of SaHel Group, discussed the goals that his organization aims to achieve following the master class training.
“We are organizing this master class training purely for the fact that there is a lot of discussion on asset recycling in public-private partnerships (PPP), which is new in our vocabulary, and there is a need to expose everybody to the nuts and bolts of public-private partnerships (PPP). How should it be structured, what are the terms and conditions, the social benefits, the economic benefits, and the community benefits, and how can we leverage PPP or asset recycling to fast track the development of the Gambia,” he said.
Mr. Touray expressed optimism that the master-class training will enable them to achieve their goals.
“We are happy that the policymakers are with us here. We have the Minister of Finance, the Minister of Works and Infrastructure, the Governor of the Central Bank, and other beneficiaries who should know about the Public Private Partnership (PPP) in the classroom. The course should take five days, but we decided to make it for two days because of the time constraints,” he said.
Mr. Touray said that the public-private partnership (PPP) begins with the communities, by discussing how they will benefit from it. He said that communities accept PPPs that will improve their lives and livelihoods.
Hon. Ebrima Sillah, the Minister of Works and Infrastructure, and one of the participants, emphasized the significance of the training and the positive impact it will have on his ministry.
“This training is very important, especially to my ministry. As you know, we are handling large-scale infrastructure projects, and quite a number of these projects go through an international tender process. Bidders are invited to participate in the tender process, and how we go about it is critically important. That is why this training is fundamental to our work because it takes you through the various stages, the processes, and even the PPP modules,” he said.
Hon. Sillah mentioned that following the training, participants will be well-equipped to enter the negotiation phase and adeptly handle proposals.
Mr. Ebrima Faal, the CEO of Development Perspective United Kingdom, stated that the primary goal of the master class training is to enhance the government’s capabilities in public-private partnerships.
Mr. Faal went on to mention that although this marks their inaugural training in this field, they have plans to conduct additional capacity-building initiatives in the future, focusing on both public-private partnerships and asset recycling.