President Adama Barrow on Tuesday presided over the signing of performance contracts between the Executive and three State-Owned Enterprises—Gambia Ports Authority, Gambia National Petroleum Corporation and Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation .
Following the signing, President Barrow said the three SOEs are ‘extremely important’, and their operations significantly impact the lives of Gambians and the government’s economic performance.
“It is no secret that State-Owned Enterprises play a vital role in our national development endeavours. It is expected that, in providing essential social services for the public, they do so in a financially and operationally robust manner to ease the pressure on Central Government resources and contribute positively to economic growth.”
“Our experience is that, despite the enormous investments made by Government in SOEs, many of these entities continue to post losses.
This has made it necessary to devise a renewed strategy to change the narrative and strengthen their operations and performance.” He noted.
The President said that the SOEs delivering on their mandate in an effective, efficient and transparent manner is critical in the country’s current development trajectory.
“Moving forward, the Government will continue to work with all Public Enterprises and ensure that they not only deliver public services reliably and efficiently but also contribute to Government fiscal operations by disbursing dividends payable to their shareholders.”
