By Ambassador Abdoulie M Touray
The electricity challenge facing The Gambia has become more than an energy problem. It is now a competitiveness problem, particularly for the tourism industry.
Hotels, restaurants and tourism businesses depend on reliable electricity for air-conditioning, refrigeration, water pumping, kitchens, laundry services, ICT systems and guest comfort. When the grid fails, businesses are compelled to operate generators, purchase fuel and absorb substantial maintenance costs.
For a highly seasonal industry, this is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain.
Tourism businesses earn much of their income during a limited part of the year, yet their electricity, maintenance and financing obligations continue throughout the year. While solar energy and battery storage can reduce dependence on generators, the initial capital investment is beyond the reach of many establishments.
The solution, therefore, is not simply to tell hotels to “go solar”. We must create a financing and regulatory framework that enables them to do so.
Government, Nawec, Pura, the ministries responsible for Energy, Tourism and Finance, GIEPA, commercial banks and the Gambia Hotel Association should work together to establish a Tourism Green Energy Financing Facility.
Such a facility could provide long-term concessional financing, partial government-backed guarantees and structured repayment arrangements that allow hotels to finance solar and battery systems over several years.
Tax and import-duty incentives should also be considered for qualifying renewable-energy equipment.
Another important option is the Energy Service Company, or ESCO, model. Under this arrangement, an investor finances, installs and maintains the solar and battery system, while the hotel repays the investment gradually through electricity payments or verified energy savings.
This would remove the greatest obstacle: the large upfront capital requirement.
The objective should not be to disconnect hotels from Nawec. Rather, hotels should become energy partners.
Solar systems can meet daytime demand, batteries can provide resilience during outages, and Nawec can continue supplying electricity when required. Where technically feasible, appropriate net-metering or power-export arrangements should eventually allow businesses to supply surplus electricity to the grid.
At the same time, government must continue strengthening the national electricity system. The Gambia needs a diversified energy mix combining domestic solar generation, battery storage, regional electricity imports, efficient conventional generation and stronger transmission and distribution infrastructure.
Private sector renewable energy must complement, not substitute, a reliable national grid. The private sector is not asking government to pay for everything. Businesses are prepared to invest. What they need is an enabling environment that makes those investments commercially realistic.
I therefore propose the establishment of a Tourism and Energy Investment Roundtable, involving Government, Nawec, Pura, financial institutions, hotel operators, renewable-energy developers and development partners.
The Roundtable should begin with perhaps 10–20 pilot hotels, and beachfront residential complexes to conduct energy audits, determine investment requirements and develop bankable financing structures capable of being scaled nationally.
Every dalasi saved from unnecessary generator fuel can instead support renovation, expansion, staff training and employment. Reliable and affordable electricity strengthens tourism. Competitive tourism attracts investment. Investment creates jobs. And jobs generate national prosperity. The technology exists. The financing instruments exist. The private sector is willing. What is required now is coordinated leadership and implementation.
Ambassador Abdoulie M Touray is the president of the SaHel Knowledge Campus Think Tank (SKCTT), former chairman of the Gambia Tourism Board, first chairman of the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), former president of the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), and first chairman of Gambia Investment Free Zones Authority (GIPFZA) now GIEPA.
He is a World Bank consultant for Nawec on Strategic Development and Management.