By Mama A. Touray
The Banjul Sea Port has said it will leverage river Gambia potential to complement services to Southern Senegal and other West African nations.
“Banjul port could leverage on the river Gambia potential to complement the services to southern Senegal, southwest regions of Mali, Guinea Bissau and Guinea Conakry. Development of the port infrastructure in Banjul could enhance the Gambia’s attentiveness for the feeder service to these hinterland markets, which will be more cost-effective in terms of cost per ton mile for high volume cargoes, given the strategic spatial advantage of the country in terms of connectivity,” the port said.
“This will be complemented by corresponding investment in roads and bridges across the river, airport improvement, and development of the river transportation and construction of special economic zones as part of the corridor management project. There are huge prospects for complementarity upon completion of the current transport infrastructure projects in The Gambia.”
According to the Port Authority, DP has signed a 25-year concession with the port of Dakar in 2008, and part of the agreement is that DP World to undertake further expansion when the container volumes reach 400,000.
“It happened that by 2012, the container volumes in Dakar reached 700,000 and the expansion to which DP World had committed them in the original concession agreement became due. Negotiations for the expansion started in 2018 and were completed recently, circulating in the decision to invest in Ndayane, due to the congestion within Dakar and its environment.
However, the Port of Banjul is located on the estuary of the River Gambia 13° 27 minutes north and 16° 34 minutes west, 26 nautical miles from the Atlantic Ocean and its area of jurisdiction covers north from Buniadu Point to the extreme of Cape Point, to the south from the western extreme of Dog Island to the northern extreme of the South Bank of Madina Creek.