By Fatou Sillah
The managing director of the Gambia Ports Authority, Ousman Jobarteh, said that the government’s concession agreement with the Turkish firm Albayrak Group has not been renegotiated, pushing back against claims that the terms of the deal had been altered.
In an interview with West Coast Radio, Mr. Jobarteh said that only timelines tied to early project activities had been adjusted after delays in preparatory work.
“There were some delays in the pre-construction activity,” he said. “The parties—Albayrak and the G.P.A.—invoked a clause in the concession agreement that calls for remediation, and in that remediation, the timelines that were supposed to have been achieved in the first year were the ones that were being renegotiated and not the contract-specific.”
The delays, he said, were largely caused by difficulties in gaining timely access to land needed for geotechnical investigations and environmental studies, both of which are prerequisites for construction.
“These are very complex studies,” Mr. Jobarteh said, adding that officials had initially expected them to be completed by February, clearing the way for construction to begin in Sanyang.
He said the situation had since improved. The government, he noted, has now allocated the required land and issued a lease for the Sanyang site to support onshore activities and inland infrastructure. Consultants have also been mobilized to carry out the environmental impact assessment.
Mr. Jobarteh rejected suggestions that the concession agreement lacked transparency, saying that while the document is not secret, it contains commercially sensitive provisions.
He also said a resettlement plan was in place for people whose livelihoods may be affected by the port project, particularly those operating along the beach where some of the development is expected to occur.
“Our primary objective in this resettlement action plan is to relocate the activities that already exist on the beach,” he said.
Mr. Jobarteh added that the authorities remained confident in Albayrak Group’s commitment to completing the project under the revised schedule.
“We have successfully negotiated a new timeline, and we are confident that from what is visible in terms of their commitment, they will deliver on the project,” he said.
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