By Ramatoulie Jawo
The Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Hon. Seedy Keita, has confirmed the disbursement of the first tranche of $20 million from the Jah Oil loan facility. This was revealed on Wednesday during a session at the National Assembly in response to a query from Hon. Sainey Jawara, the representative for Lower Saloum Constituency.
Hon. Jawara inquired about the proceeds from the credit facility under Section 4.01, asking whether the $20 million tranche disbursed in January 2024 had been finalized, and sought details on the upcoming disbursement of the second tranche, valued at $15 million.
Member asked, “Honorable Speaker, could the Hon. Minister of Finance tell this August Assembly what proceeds of the credit facility in Section 4.01 of $20,000,00 have already been disbursed in the tranche in January 2024, while the second tranche of the fifteen Million is currently being processed and ready for disbursement soon? If yes, could the Hon. Minister provides documentation for the disbursement of the tranches of the credit facility?”
He further elaborated that Jah Oil has fully repaid the first tranche, including interest, but deferred the second and third tranches back to the Ministry of Trade. The latter invited private sector entities to express interest in the facility, with the bidding process closing on September 6th. The Ministry of Trade is currently evaluating the submitted bids.
“The disbursement for the first tranche of $20,000,000 has already been effected, while the disbursement for the second tranche of $15,000.000 is not affected.Jah Oil has fully repaid the first tranche of the loan with interest and has deferred the second and third tranches back to the ministry of trade. The latter invited interested private sector operations to express interest for assessment, and the bidding period elapsed on the 6th of September. The Ministry of Trade is evaluating the bids submitted,” the Minister highlighted.
Hon. Jawara, in a supplementary question, asked the minister why Jah Oil returned the facility. In response, Minister Keita clarified that his role is not to speak on behalf of Jah Oil, but to address the matter as the minister.
“Hon Minister, why was the facility given to Jah, and Jah returned it when Jah was the only person to get this facility?” he further asked the minister.
In response to the question, the minister expressed his commitment to transparency, stating, “the Honorable member for lower Saloum has been asking me about this facility on four occasions, and if you have interest, our doors are open. When I brought this facility into this August Assembly, it was accompanied by the financing agreement, and no transaction about this facility is secret. This facility was transferred to the Ministry of Trade to work with the business committee to allocate. But for the interest of transparency, how Jah became the only supplier who fulfilled the condition; he paid different fees that amounted to (867,905) eight hundred and sixty-seven thousand nine hundred and five dollars.”
“These are the fees that were put forward for every eligible participant to pay; nobody came forward to pay this; only Jah Oil paid. That is why he was awarded the facility. There was no backdoor; these are transparent fees that Jah Oil paid directly,” he stated.
He highlighted that the interest cost for the initial tranche of twenty million amounted to four hundred sixteen thousand six hundred thirty-six dalasis (416,636). This brought the total amount paid by Jah Oil for this facility to one million two hundred eighty-four thousand five hundred forty-one dalasis (1,284,541). He emphasized that this is a straightforward financial transaction, with no room for ambiguity.
“I will tell you one thing, Honorable member, this country has a history of facilities coming in, and certain private sector operations being used and not paid, and at the end of the day, the government paid for it. That should be history. We have extracted a corporate guarantee from Jah Oil, if Jah Oil had not paid for this facility, we would have sold his company to pay it back. We have all those legal agreements. So it was not behind the scenes nepotism or any favoritism; let’s behave parliamentary, please,” he said.
Hon. Jawara stated that the Minister of Trade claimed he had never seen the contract agreement between BADIA and the Government of The Gambia.
The minister emphasized that the agreement is not confidential, as it has been shared with all National Assembly members and journalists.
“How would the tranche do the allocation? When the Trade Minister does not know how the facility works and the Trade Minister is guided by a permanent Secretariat, he is not supposed to work with agreement. So if the minister said he had not seen the agreement himself, does that make it invalid? No, the permanent Secretariat chaired the committee that awarded it. And the permanent Secretariat is the technical head of the ministry,” he said.