In a recent interview on Coffee Time with Peter Gomez, Galloh Saidy, the Managing Director of the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC), listed the main issues facing the company.
According to Saidy, the most urgent problems influencing NAWEC’s operations include vandalism, fluctuations in foreign exchange, capacity building, and rising service demand.
He voiced concern about the increasing number of vandalism incidents that threaten NAWEC’s infrastructure, pointing out that repairs take up a significant amount of funds that could be used for other important projects.
Regarding changes in foreign exchange, Saidy clarified that around 80% of NAWEC’s purchases are made in foreign currencies. He said that the growing disparity between expenses and the company’s stagnating rates is caused by the dalasi’s depreciation.
Almost 80% of our purchases, regardless of what we are purchasing, are made using foreign currency. In that case, the Dalasi is losing value in relation to that foreign currency. Additionally, your selling price, or tariff, is unchanged. It indicates that a gap is being created, and that gap is ongoing. Thus, that is also a significant difficulty. Thus, widening the FX gap is a major problem. Additionally, Saidy emphasized that the tariff is at one point and that government assistance has been essential in closing the gap.
“We must raise tariffs otherwise. I believe we are doing well, but it does represent the cost of sales,” he said.
The head of NAWEC also underlined the necessity of bolstering the organization’s capacity building, noting that real-world, experiential training is crucial for enhancing academic credentials. “We need to make sure that people are well-trained for the young ones that are coming up,” he stated.
Saidy also emphasized the nation’s rising water and electricity demands, emphasizing that NAWEC needs to not only keep up with but even surpass them. Additionally, we need to catch up and grow faster than the demand. Otherwise, we’ll be here all the time discussing transformer overloads, blackouts, and water shortages,” he said.
He disclosed that NAWEC is creating long-term plans that would last 10 to 30 years in order to make sure that infrastructure development keeps up with economic and demographic growth. “The Greater Banjul Area is essentially saturated right now. The majority of the current infrastructure and systems were not built for what is now in place. Thus, you face those difficulties,” he clarified.
Saidy voiced confidence in spite of these obstacles, citing ongoing initiatives to update NAWEC’s infrastructure and bolster its ability to provide Gambians with dependable services.
