A senior Gambia Port Authority (GPA) official could not admit or deny the report that Senegalese businessman Hadim Gai was being paid US$50,000 by the GPA as rent for the Banjul dry port.
The Senegalese businessman was almost three years ago allocated a vast chunk of land along the Bund Road in Banjul by the Barrow administration to build an inland container depot. This came at a time when the Banjul Port was struggling with congestion.
The allocation of the few remaining uninhabited land in Banjul to Hadim Gai was met with strong opposition from some quarters, especially environmental groups as the area was considered as one of the country’s few remaining carbon sinks.
Some Gambians also questioned the circumstances under which the allocation was made.
The Gambia government has yet to respond to public concerns as to why a state land was given to Mr. Gai by the government to, in turn, rent it out to it.
“This land belongs to the Gambian people and I could not understand, no matter how hard I try, why it should be given to a Senegalese to rent it out to citizens. The minimal investment that Hadim Gai made on the dry port could be done by the government itself or any Gambia investor if the administration is truly serious,” a senior Gambia government official, who spoke to JollofNews on strict condition of anonymity, lamented.
Meanwhile, Hadim Gai was also awarded over one billion dollar contract to concrete the streets of Banjul, a project once described by Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, as not futuristic.
