By: Momodou Justice Darbe
The Gambia government has yet to banish the accusations that itorchestrated a clandestine move to grant the D3.4bn BADEA Loan Facility to Jah Oil company.
On 26 April 2023, The Gambia and BADEA signed in Morrocothe Revolving Line of Credit Agreement following the Gambia’s request to the financing institution to provide a revolving trade finance facility of an amount not exceeding US$50M to be dedicated to the financing of importing of petroleum products, food and other essential commodities from African and Arab countries.
One of the strings attached to the loan was a one-off non-refundable upfront administrative payment of D48M, which must be paid by an interested company and a deposit of a corporate guarantee equivalent to the amount of the lending. The beneficiary must also pay US$770,000.00 fees and commitment charges of US$45,138.89.
Finance Minister Seedy Keita told legislators at the National Assembly in March of this year that many Gambian businesses could not fulfill the conditions of the D3.4 bn loan agreement but an investigation conducted by this reporter revealed that many Gambian businesses were unaware of the availability of the loan.
“I just want to challenge the Gambia government to give the names of those Gambian businesses that expressed interest in the BADEA loan,” stated a Gambian businessman, who spoke under condition of anonymity.
Our investigation could not establish when and where the government and businesses met despite the finance minister hinting at several meetings between officials and businessmen to gauge their eligibility for the loan.
Many businessmen had told this reporter that they were neither made aware of the availability of the BADEA loan nor approached by the government about it until it was contracted to Jah Oil.
“I never read or saw anywhere that the government had such a facility,” a successful businessman said when approached for his reaction to the loan.
The Gambia government has been, therefore, challenged to explain to tax-payers the circumstanc