Finance Minister Seedy Keita announced during his 2024 budget speech to the National Assembly on Friday that the government is planning to implement a number of reforms to make the aviation industry more “efficient and viable,” including a public-private partnership for the management and operations of the Banjul airport.

According to him, work is still being done to separate the airport’s management and operation from the Gambia Civil Aviation Authority, which oversees aviation regulations. In accordance with international norms and suggested practices, this entails the industry’s regulatory and service offering activities being kept separate.
The current decoupling process will result in the creation of a new Airport Company and a Civil Aviation Authority that will be solely responsible for regulatory control. Furthermore, the government intends to manage and operate the Banjul International Airport via a Public-Private Partnership. Such measures are expected to improve the aviation sector’s performance and its contributions to the nation’s growth, Minister Keita informed parliamentarians.

According to the minister, the government has been forced to look into new financing methods in order to satisfy the financial requirements of the new National Development Plan 2023–2027 because of the existing restricted budgetary space. Three financing mechanisms have been suggested in this respect.
These include creating a plan for mobilizing domestic income, using cutting-edge financing techniques for important development initiatives, and using concessional funds to draw in financing that combines private capital and other sources of funding.
“Financing the Plan [new NDP] would require complementing government and concessional resources with greater private sector investment in the country under constrained fiscal situations characterized by high risk of debt distress and challenges imposed by tightened global financial conditions and increasing cost of capital and debt servicing,” he stated.