Gambia: Ferry Service Boss Hints Lack of Govt Subsidy Contributes to Ferry Issues

Chatting with QTV Gambia Good Morning Present on Thursday, Lamin Jawara, the overall supervisor of Ferries, revealed that President Adama Barrow’s authorities will not be paying subsidies to the ferry service, thus contributing to the issue confronted by their operation staff.

He stated: “Fares we cost for the ferry can’t deal with our wants. All that we gather can’t finance the ferry from Banjul to Barra. If we take away our workers salaries, we will probably be left with about 15% of the income. The quantity can’t purchase gas, spare components, supplies, lubricants, fee of ferry insurance coverage, and workers welfare. The fares are usually not sufficient and solely the federal government subsidy will help us.”

“As a result of the subsidy will not be coming, we can’t do vital upkeep on time. We spend 47 million on provincial ferry service alone they usually fetch lower than 12 million. To resolve the issue, we want the federal government to depart us to additional enhance the fares to a degree we could have monies to function the ferries, purchase the spare components and gas and as nicely save monies to exchange the ferries when they’re outdated.”

He additional indicated that the lifetime of a ferry is between 20 to 30 years, saying aside from Kanilai and Kunta Kinteh ferries, the remainder of the ferries are over 20 years. He stated the final time they modified the engines of Kanilai was in 2014 and they’re over-exhausted and want alternative.

Mr Jawara disclosed that these engines are out of manufacturing, thus “we want reengineering.”