Following its failure to salvage Gamtel/Gamcel from financial doldrums and transform it into a profit-making entity, the Barrow administration is now at an advanced stage of privatising the majority shares of the company, JollofNews can authoritatively report.
The Gambia’s finance and economic affairs minister Seedy Keita sometime this year admitted that the Barrow administration was unable to make Gamtel/Gamcel financially viable. Minister Keita said the once financially vibrant entity was no longer an asset and had in fact become a liability to the state.
However, many Gambians were unhappy with the government’s plan to sell 60% of the shares of Gamtel/Gamcel to private investors, saying the government should instead invest in the company to relaunch it on the trajectory of its yesteryears glory.
Minister Keita was quoted as saying that the Barrow administration had financed loans for the company’s expansion and despite this, its liabilities continued to surpass its asset base.
Critics of the government, however, argued that the Barrow administration’s best bait for privatization of some strategic national assets is to allow them to slip into financial doldrums.
Despite the many hues and cry over the government’s move to privatize 60% of Gamtel/Gamcel, which will lead to 600 job losses, the government is now reportedly working with the World Bank, putting the finishing touches to the deal.
Some officials, contacted by this medium, preferred not to comment on the matter.
