Gambia Needs Up to $40 Million to Complete University Campus, Minister Says

By Seedy Jobe

The government of Gambia estimates it will need between $39 million and $40 million to complete the fourth phase of the University of The Gambia’s campus in Faraba Banta, the country’s higher education minister said Tuesday, calling the investment essential to the nation’s development.

Prof. Pierre Gomez, the Minister of Higher Education, Research, Science, and Technology, disclosed the cost estimate during an appearance on QTV, where he provided an update on the long-delayed campus project.

“We are thinking something close to 39, 40 million dollars,” Prof. Gomez said. “So it’s big money, but for me, education is the best that you can give somebody.”

The minister argued that education was central to national self-sufficiency, saying it gives individuals the independence to shape their own futures. He said no country could develop without a highly skilled workforce and that Gambia needed to keep pace with its neighbors by expanding academic offerings across multiple disciplines.

The campus expansion, he said, is intended to help close skills gaps across various sectors of the economy by producing a new generation of graduates equipped to enter the workforce.

Prof. Gomez described the project as an investment in both the present and the future, arguing that genuine independence depends on having citizens with the expertise to lead.

His remarks came as Gambia marks 61 years since gaining independence from Britain on Feb. 18, 1965. Prof. Gomez said the country was still confronting significant developmental challenges and could not afford further delay.

“Our development cannot be postponed because development is now,” he said. “We must act and act fast. We must be agents of change for development. That was the reason why we came out for independence.”

He added that Gambia’s push for self-determination would have been meaningless had the country preferred to remain under colonial rule. The clearest path to fulfilling that original goal, he said, was to invest in educating the country’s youth so they could become the country’s future leaders.