By Buba Gagigo
President Adama Barrow has revealed that the newly inaugurated Brikama Market will accommodate more than one thousand, two hundred (1200) stores and various zones and facilities for assorted commodities and activities.
“Although the Brikama Market facility has come to fulfill a long-standing desire of the residents in the West Coast Region, it accords with a key flagship component of the Draft National Development Plan. The expected output of the market master plan is a modern multipurpose one-stop business facility of international class that would be the first of its kind in The Gambia and the sub-region.
“Upon completion, the new market will accommodate more than one thousand, two hundred (1200) stores and various zones and facilities for assorted commodities and activities. All these are meant to boost its commercial visibility and viability,” the president said during the market inauguration in Brikama on Monday.
Brikama is the seat of the largest and biggest administrative region in the Gambia, with over seven hundred and thirty thousand (730,000) residents in the area. The president said the new market is designed to serve a population size of over eighty-three thousand (83,000).
“Because it is a huge project, it is designed in phases. Phase One consists of eighty-eight (88) stores and the other facilities and health and safety measures described in the project profile. With this edifice, my government has laid the foundation for an ultra-modern international market that will make every Gambian proud. It will certainly be an added beautiful architectural landscape design in the heart of Brikama,” he said.
The Gambian leader also revealed that his Government was able to fully fund the first phase of the Market Project at an estimated cost of thirty-eight and a half million Dalasi (GMD38.5 million);
“It could be recalled that a few months ago, twenty (20) canteens of this market were burnt down in an unexpected fire outbreak. It was heartbreaking for the canteen owners to see their goods and assets perish. The loss was devastating, especially for those who had just established new businesses. Upon receiving the news, my government promised to rebuild the whole market. It is most gratifying that, despite all the global economic crises, the Government was able to fully fund the first phase of the Market Project at an estimated cost of thirty-eight and a half million Dalasi (GMD38.5 million),” the president said.