Albayrak Group’s vision for new Gambian port promises ‘win-win’ megaproject

The new vision put forward by Türkiye’s Albayrak Group for Gambia’s new port promises a megaproject that would diversify the west African nation’s economy, shielding it from future economic and social crises, as well as greatly improve Gambians’ quality of life.

With the Banjul Port as its only all-purpose port, Gambia has just one trade harbour connecting it to the outside world, which has negatively impatced the nation’s economic growth due to a plethora of problems arising from the port’s location.

Located on the edge of the Banjul peninsula, the rapidly increasing city population and business volume has been creating numerous social and economic problems. Research shows that capacity enlargement investments, which is the subject of a loan concession tender launched by the grovernment, will not help bring lasting solutions to these problems.

For starters, port access roads pass through the residential areas, leading to heavy truck traffic congestion and bottlenecks in the city.

In addition, the lack of truck parking within the port hinterland is adding further pressure to the traffic congestion.

Türkiye’s Albayrak Group has conducted comprehensive studies for a new Port location with results showing the Sanyang region as the most suitable location.

The relocation of the Port to Sanyang is expected to offer lasting solutions to problems such as the removal of truck traffic from the city, integration with international and neighboring country routes, vast land of opportunities and sufficient draft availability.

According to the Turkish giant, building a new port in the Sanyang region will address above-mentioned problems and will be able to serve country in its hinterland for generations to come.

When looking at the competitive environment, the Port of Dakar is seen as the most important regional rival. However, the Port of Dakar has also come to a stage where it is unable to meet the needs of the day, with observers pointing that if the Port of Dakar fails to invest in expansion in the next four years, it is expected to become completely inadequate.

Albayrak Group believes that the investment to be made in Sanyang region will provide the necessary capacity needed in the medium and long terms for the Gambia and its hinterland. With this perspective, Albayrak Group is proposing develop the new port in the Gambia in the Sanyang region, which is integrated with the industrial zone, free zone, and agricultural zone.

According the Turkish group’s proposed plan, the new port of the Gambia in Sanyang will be key in the transformation of the Gambian economy, as it will enable Gambia to have a diversified economy with competitive industrial sectors thanks to the proposed plan that features opportunities to make maximum use of the proposed port’s capacities with the necessary infrastructure such as a free zone, an industrial zone, agricultural and fish processing facilities and truck parking area which would be built in areas within the port hinterland.

Albayrak Group’s proposed first phase of the new Port of the Gambia plans for operations to kick off in Sanyang by the year 2025 with possible expansion phases in the future.

The new proposed port would boast a container terminal on a container yard with two quays with a total length of 500m with STS cranes and storage areas of 125,000 square meters. The first general cargo terminal has a quay with a total length of 250m with 2 MHC cranes and storage areas of 65,000 square meters.

According to Albayrak Group’s proposed plan, the Sanyang free zone facilities promise to make a significant contribution to the country’s foreign trade and transit trade with an area of 350,000 square meters.

Albayrak Group owns and operates an important free zone in Trabzon, and two major industrial zones in the Konya and Balıkesir provinces in Türkiye.

In addition to Albayrak Group’s invesment in the zones, other domestic and international business groups are being offered attractive investment opportunities. Albayrak Group’s vision based on their experiences in industrial and free zone operations aims to transform Sanyang into an attractive commercial and industrial zone.

Despite the aforementioned drawbacks of the Port of Banjul, the strategic location of the Port offers numerous financial and commercial opportunities to explore strategic location in the waterfront.

Thus, building the necessary infrastructure would add huge potential to increase tourism revenues for the Gambia as its geographical location and natural beauties make it an attractive cruise and holiday destination.

Albayrak Group believes that the conversion of the existing Port into an attractive tourist center will have a direct impact on the social and economic development of the country.

The group has proposed to develop the existing Portland in Banjul as a mixed-use real estate project. Boasting a total area of approximately 167,285 square meters, the proposed Banjul real estate project will come with a 60,000 square-meter residential area, 8,000 square-meter commercial area, 37,000 square-meter commercial and marina area, 29,000 square-meter recreation area, 21,000 square-meter mosque and cultural comples, as well as a 5,000 square-meter hospital area, as part of Albayrak Group’s plan to attract direct foreign investment into the country with an individual approach through the realization of real estate projects.

Albayrak Group’s vision was inspired by the group’s success stories in Türkiye. Somalia, Guinea, Azerbaijan and Pakistan, in addition to successful examples elsewhere in the world.

Over the years, the group’s activities in Türkiye, Somalia, Guinea, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan-have inspired unwavering confidence in the way Albayrak Group has carried out its vision in the past, as its investments in these countries have improved the daily life quality of those nations.