By Mama A. Touray
The Minister of Works and Infrastructure, Hon Ebrima Sillahhas informed that the Senegambia Bridge is still hundred percent owned by the government of The Gambia.
He confirmed this on Saturday at the press briefing held at Gam Petroleum House Brusubi on the Asset recycling MOU signed with Africa50 to manage the Senegambia Bridge for “either-or” twenty-five years.
“The Senegambia Bridge is till hundred percent owned by the government of the Gambia and it is not a mortgage and not sold. It is only the management and you have to remember that managing the bridge does not necessarily mean that you are collecting, whatever happens with the infrastructure they will have to do the maintenance and they have to return it to us how they receive it from us,” he explained.
The Minister continued: “If you look at the catchphrases here it is “Either or” which means we can be with Africa50 for twenty-five years if we are not able to realize the RII if we can do that within three, four years the asset returns to the State. But what should be made understood is that the bridge remains our assets but the management returns to the State”.
However, he stated that Gambians have seen how they were struggling at the Senegambia Bridge, and when he and the Finance Minister were appointed to their respective ministries they looked at the issue of infrastructural financing and how much is available to Gambia as a country.
He narrated that after seeing the constraints it has on the budget, they decided to go on a trekking tour of the country to look at the facilities, “when we went to Senegambia Bridge at that time the highest collection was between forty to eighty million dalasis and we immediately instructed that the automation system should be put in place, the CCTV be operational and the barrier install.” Adding that, in that month about forty-five million dalasi was collected. “Since then it has always been between thirty and forty million, you could see the improvement it generated” he explained.”
According to Hon. Sillah, the Africa50 as explained by the Finance Minister is a subsidiary of the Africa Development Bank that sponsored the construction of this bridge.
“Working within that circle brings in two benefits: the same people that we have been working with and familiar with the financing term of the bridge; it also allows us to work with a subsidiary arm of their company (Africa50) the major shareholders to ensure that there is continuity. There is going to be a capacity improvement and building of the local staff because we need to also break it down,” he explained.
The minister quickly noted that “sometimes we react because we read and we do not understand, and in most cases, we don’t listen to react.”