According to Nani Juwara, the minister of petroleum for the Gambia, Senelec is currently owed CFA10 billion, or almost 1.2 million Dalasi, for energy distribution.
On September 11, 2024, the Minister disclosed this information in response to inquiries from the nation’s legislators.
Hon. Omar Jammeh, the member for Janjanbureh, asked the minister to provide an update to the assembly on the terms and conditions of the agreement between Senelec and NAWEC regarding the distribution of energy. This included information on the amount of money involved in the agreement, the amount paid, and the remaining balance.
According to Petroleum Minister Juwara, Senelec and NAWEC have a consumption-based contract with a 30-day credit period instead of a typical one.
“A 50 megawatt facility at the high voltage level makes up the majority of the monthly buy. The energy received determines the amount paid and remaining balance. However, because to NAWEC’s current cash inflow scenario, as of right now, we owe three months’ worth of invoices, which are due in May, June, and July of 2024 and total over 10 billion CFA,” he stated.
In response to Hon. Jammeh’s additional question on whether the agreement is the best course of action rather than aiding in the advancement of NAWEC as an organization, Minister Juawara stated that they are a member of a regional organization and pointed to their membership in the OMVG.
Building infrastructure that nations can share is the goal, he stated, adding that “this is part of the arrangement that we are also making with Senelec and the rest of the West African countries.”
“We are going to have a regional project in the country which is going to be a 150-megawatt solar plant to enable us to meet our energy requirements locally and also be able to export to other countries that are also in need,” he continued. “The Gambia could one day be exporting energy, for some of those countries that we are currently importing from.”
He declared that in addition to continuing to pursue their regional engagements, “to make sure we get the least cost for our people,” they want to reduce their reliance on expensive fossil fuels.
Hon. Almameh Gibba, the member for Foni Kansala, urged the petroleum minister to provide an update to the assembly regarding the reason that the public was not made aware of the deal with BP at the outset.
Additionally, he requested that the Minister guarantee that going forward, all oil exploration endeavors, encompassing the condition of additional offshore blocks (A2, A3, A4, etc.), be disclosed to the public in an open and transparent manner.
According to Petroleum Minister Juwara, permits for the exploration, development, and exploitation of oil and gas must be granted by the Minister in charge of petroleum in accordance with section 29 of the Petroleum Exploration Development and Production Act 2004.
“The Ministry made a press release updating the general public on the results of the evaluation and the listed ten companies that qualified on April 18, 2018,” he stated, in reference to the licensing row.
He added that following British Petroleum’s (BP) license approval, announcements about BP’s withdrawal were released by the government spokesperson and printed in neighborhood newspapers.
He pointed out that the main document that outlines the terms and circumstances of the license agreement is the license agreement, which was influenced by the aforementioned act.
As a public notice, the BP Agreement was released in Gazette number 20 on March 27, 2020 (GN 59/2020). He stated that another license dispute for A Block was revealed in 2021 during Africa Oil Week in Cape Town. The public was also informed of this announcement through local press.
The launch was also reported in the Gazette No. 55, vol. 138, dated December 8, 2021 (GN 185/2021), he continued.