Halifa Sallah Reacts to ‘Senegambia bridge mortgage’ agreement

By Amadou Manneh

Honourable Halifa Sallah, Secretary General of the People's Democratic Organisation for Independence and Socialism (PDOIS) has reacted to the ‘Senegambia bridge mortgage’ agreement  with Africa50.

The government of the Gambia has signed $100 million agreement with Africa50 to manage and operate the Senegambia Bridge. The agreement sparked public debate that described the agreement as mortgaging of the bridge but the  government said the agreement is a  sale transaction, mortgage or privatisation contract.

Halifa Sallah stated that  the Senegambia bridge is a ‘sovereign property and  must not  be dispose in any way unless the national interest is secured.’ He made these remarks at a PDOIS press conference held on Thursday 3, August 2023.

He said that the Senegambia bridge is a source of revenue that was build  to replace the ferries that where plying and they were also a source of revenue.

“Now our ferries are dying. Any document that truly has the national interest at heart would have look at ferries as institution and you can transform it into a money making service so that will manage the ferries and ensure that they productive  and it will help to sustain,” he told reporters.

He argued that before the bridge will be ‘mortgage’ to Africa50 the government should have done  performance study to asses the revenue generating capacity of the bridge.

“The first task of the ministry of finance should be to initiate a performance audit  of the Senegambia bridge to find out how much it could generate, find out what it challenges are , what management  difficult, what other inputs to make it much more profitable.” he said.

He further stated that his party do not object to  any public-private partnership  but the partnership base on studies should go inline with the interest of the country.

He added that since there was no performance study done, the statement about the bridge is all speculations. 

The veteran politician further added that the government should look for home base partners  before partnering with outsider private sector.

He said it is possible for government to mobilize local capital before mortgaging the bridge.

Honourable Sallah added that  the Government could have also use initiative like ‘Senegambia bridge bond’ to generate money it need. 

He further called for the formation of Public-Private Partnership Act that should serve as guidelines for government public-private partnership.

He concluded that all bilateral or multilateral agreement made by the executive need to be ratified by national assembly to examine the national interest of the Gambia.