By: Nyima Sillah
The lawmaker for Janjanbureh, Omar Jatto Jammeh has sharply criticized the proposed $100M Radisson Blu Hotel as “a total mess for the country.”
“An international brand intended for the just-concluded OIC, the so-called $100M intended Radisson Blu Hotel launched by President Adama Barrow has resulted in a mess and missed opportunities to develop our tourism infrastructure and create employment claimed to be the largest tourism investment by the government,” NAM Jammeh told The Voice in an interview.
According to Mr. Jammeh, the said fund could have created lot of positive impacts in addressing the high rate of unemployment gap among the youthful population.
He explained: “The project could have created 400 standard rooms and 60 presidential villas among other facilities to accommodate guests coming for the OIC only to turn out that Senegal happened to host the dignitaries due to lack of high hotel standards.”
Jammeh, who is a member of the assembly’s Tourism, Arts, and Culture Committee, asserted that the economic gains, skill transfer were also a missing opportunity, while querying for the need of a new hotel when the money could have been invested in existing hotels to improve qualities and required standards.
“The proposed design and idea could have given over 3000 jobs, but again, all those ceremonies and launch of Radisson Hotel have gone in the air for now, but I don’t think that is the end of the story,” he stated.
According to him, the reason behind the failure of Radisson Hotel is mainly due to misplaced priorities by the government as they have the option to build on the already-existing hotels like: Sheraton, Kombo Beach, and Senegambia hotels among others.
The Janjanbureh NAM further stated that another factor that led to the failure of the hotel was that the government failed to scrutinise the so-called self-claimed investors.
“Senegal hosting the dignitaries indicates the gains for them economically. Also, it creates employment for their citizens. Over millions of dalasi might have been wasted that could be reinvested in youth and women’s development, especially in the industry sector,” NAM argued.