The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) of The Gambia has embarked on a successful day visit to media houses in within the Greater Banjul Area to help strengthen cordial relationship and scout out new opportunities for future partnership.
The media house visit was conducted on Wednesday, March 24, 2021 through the Authority’s Directorate of Human Resource and Corporate Affairs with the overarching goal to further strengthen already existing relationship between the Authority and media institutions.
The visited news institutions include GRTS (TV), Paradise TV, Star TV, Standard, The Voice, The Point Newspapers and The Fatu Network.
Meanwhile, QTV, Eye Africa TV and MTN TV are expected to be visited on Thursday [today].
The principal purpose of the visit is to serve as a conduit in passage of the PURA message to its intended audience. With a well craft message, consistent and factual base reportage on the authority necessitated the visit to various media institutions. As this will strengthen partnership with the desire to rigorously use the media in reaching out to Gambians whenever the need arises.
The visit afforded the Corporate Affairs team a vast opportunity to discussed and charted out a fresh media working relations with the media for future collaborations.
The visit also discussed the plans for coverage on the anticipated visit of Malian authority to The Gambia next week (Monday, 29th March 2021) plus the Authority (PURA) mandate and its intervention related works with a view to ensuring accuracy, balance and factual reporting.
Commenting on the visit, Mr. Yaya B. Baldeh, PURA new Corporate Affairs Manager said “this latest tour to the media institutions is indeed a journey towards new path to enhance and build a new grandeur with our valued partners in national development. As champions of partnership and professionalism, we deemed it apt to re-established ties with the media in passage of consistent, balance and verifiable piece of information to the public regarding the Authority engagements. “
He expressed delight and appreciation over the warm welcome accorded to him and members of his team by the media institution.
Jocely Johnson, PURA Human Resource and Corporate Affairs Officer hailed the efforts of the visited institutions for the warm welcomed accorded to the team, saying it really displayed degree of the media’s readiness for a progressive partnership.
Lamin Cham, editor-in-chief of The Standard Newspaper assured the PURA delegation their unflinching readiness and commitment towards publishing the Authority’s stories.
“We greatly value verification issues, it is very crucial to our job as journalists, especially when issues happen,” stated Cham.
Adama Makasuba, news editor of The Voice Newspaper assured the delegation that they are ready to partner with PURA to ensure accuracy and factual base reporting. He commended the media tour for the visit.
For journalist Kebba Ansu Manneh, the step taken by PURA’s Corporate Affairs team is a step in the right direction which will certainly help in access to information whenever the need arises. He further commended the team, saying such is first-time in history and encouraged the team to continue in this trend..
Baba Hydara of The Point Newspaper said: “We look forward to working cordially with PURA. Having such visit is first-time and is quite refreshing toward the new path. The relationship is a long one and we definitely want to sustain it for prosperity.”
Tijan Njie, editor at Foroyaa Newspaper thanked PURA for long standing partnership, adding that Foroyaa’s doors are always open, more so in collaborations such as news coverage.
Malick Jones, Content Director and Programme Manager at Star TV/FM assured his management’s collaboration with PURA whenever the need arises.
Lamin Njie, editor-in-chief of the Fatu Network expressed gratitude and delight over the media visit extended to his network. He indicated that citizens depend heavily on PURA when they want certain issues to be addressed, noting that the new path taken will certainly augur well in ensuring the citizenry further appreciate the work of the Authority.
“This will undoubtedly strengthen PURA’s outlook. As an institution we are willing and ready to work with PURA,” he stated.
About PURA
The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) of The Gambia is an independent multi-sector regulatory agency established and empowered under the PURA Act 2001 to regulate sectors such as Broadcasting, Electricity, Telecommunications, Petroleum, Transportation, Post, Water and Sewage.
The Authority strives to protect the cardinal interest of both consumers and service providers within the aforesaid sectors. It also plays a leading role in providing guidelines on rates and fees for the provision of an effective regulated public service system. In addition to its mandate, the Authority monitors and enforces standards of performance with a view to enhancing quality service delivery mechanisms.
The Authority envisages becoming a knowledge-based hub that is highly relevant to the development of public utility services via the promotion of investment for quality service delivery in The Gambia. To this direction, the urgent need to create a competitive environment for utilities to uphold the principle of providing quality services affordable and accessible to consumers.
