Communication Officer -National Water and Electricity Company(NAWEC)
By Ramatoulie Jawo
Buba Badjie, the Communications Officer of the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC), confirmed to this platform that NAWEC currently owes Senelec for 45 days, contrary to earlier reports of a three-month outstanding balance.
“The Minister was correct at the time he reported that we owed Senelec for three months, as that was the information available to him. As I explained at the National Assembly, questions are typically sent to ministers in advance, and they then consult the institutions under their purview. NAWEC falls under the Ministry of Energy, and at the time, we had indeed been in arrears for three months. However, since that information was provided, we have made payments, and as of now, we owe Senelec for 45 days, not three months,” Badjie clarified.
When asked for further details on the payment status, Badjie added, “Minus 45 days from three months, that is what we are owing them. Perhaps at this Juncture I would not know the figures because I don’t want to give the wrong figure, but I know we owe Senelec 100%. But how much? I can come back to you with that figure, but we owe them 45 days,” he said
Addressing the recent power outage, Badjie explained that it coincided with Minister Nani’s remarks at the National Assembly. He revealed that the outage on Wednesday night was due to technical issues at the OMVG station, which handles power distribution for The Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, and Guinea.
“And that is a regional center, Gambia is connected there, Mauritania, Mali, and Guinea. So even Senegal went off, so that has nothing to do with the load, and we are not disconnected by Senegal, and we have never been disconnected by Senegal,”he emphasized.
He emphasized that despite owing Senegal for over seven months in the past, they were never disconnected for less than three months during that time.
“That’s why I mentioned that currently, we only owe them for 45 days, meaning they haven’t cut us off. Even after resolving the issue overnight, they restored power from Basse to Barra. It was only the Greater Banjul Area (GBA) that had to wait until around 1 p.m. the next day when they provided the agreed 50 megawatts,” he explained.
He further clarified that Senelec did not reduce even 0.1 MW. He affirmed that Senelec continues to supply the full 50 MW, dismissing claims that they reduced the voltage as “false and misleading.”