Government Confirms Senegal Will Halt Basalt Exports To The Gambia Next Month

By Buba Gagigo 

Lamin Dampha, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment, has confirmed that Senegalese authorities have notified them of their decision to stop exporting basalt in October.

“Senegal has already notified us that come October they will not be exporting basalt to any country because they have a huge infrastructural development project that they want to deal with, and they don’t think that the quantity of basalt that they have presently will be able to share with any other country considering that demand and government is already working on alternatives, to access basalt elsewhere. We are a sovereign state. We have ways and means of getting some of those commodities, just like how we were getting them from Senegal,” the permanent Secretary said.

Dampha also addressed and dismissed rumors of a trade conflict between Senegal and The Gambia.

“People are peddling this idea that we are at trade war with Senegal. It’s not correct. Senegal has their own internal policies, and we have our own internal policies, and what is happening now is, the countries are engaging. We are discussing, and in fact, we are expecting Senegal to be here in December for us to finalize some of the areas that we could not finalize when we met in Sally. And we are hopeful that the discussions that are going on will encourage trade flow between the two countries,” Lamin Dampha told West Coast Radio.