By Madi Jobarteh, Human Rights Defender
The issue of electricity in the Gambia demands a serious national conversation. It is one of the most poorly managed and least accountable sectors in the country, despite attracting billions of dalasi in public and donor funding. The triumphalist narrative constantly promoted by the government must be challenged. Citizens should not accept disinformation, insulting rhetoric, or endless excuses while enduring blackouts and paying for an unreliable service.
A review of the country’s electricity generation infrastructure raises troubling questions. Let’s have a look.
The Kotu Power Station remains NAWEC’s largest conventional generation facility, with a nominal installed capacity of approximately 41 MW. Powered by heavy fuel oil (HFO) generators, it should be a major pillar of national electricity supply. Yet due to aging infrastructure, poor maintenance, and chronic management failures, its effective output fluctuates between 22 MW and 25 MW during peak periods.
The Brikama Power Station has an installed capacity of approximately 40 – 45 MW. Originally commissioned in 2006 with a 12 MW capacity, it was expanded in 2007 with additional 25 MW generating units and further strengthened in 2021 with another 20 MW plant. Janjanbureh and Basse have smaller facilities, generating approximately 0.27 MW and 0.64 MW, respectively. The country also possesses the 23 MW solar plant at Jambur.
Taken together, these facilities represent a minimum installed generation capacity of approximately 134 MW. Given that national peak demand is estimated at around 106 MW, it means the Gambia should, in principle, be capable of meeting its electricity needs from domestic generation alone. In other words, the country should already be enjoying energy sovereignty and energy security than it currently is.
This leads to the most important question Gambians must ask President Barrow, the Minister of Energy, and the Managing Director of NAWEC: Why are these facilities not generating at their full installed capacity?
Since 2017, estimates suggest that between US$400 million and US$600 million has been invested in the energy sector through loans, grants, and public expenditure. In dalasi terms, that amounts to roughly D28 billion to D48 billion. With such unprecedented levels of investment, citizens are entitled to ask where the results are.
The Gambia has a population of roughly three million people and occupies just over 11,000 square kilometres. It has no heavy industrial base that places extraordinary pressure on the grid. The country is relatively flat, free from mountains, hurricanes, and other major geographical obstacles that complicate infrastructure development elsewhere. It stretches approximately 450 kilometres in length and 80km at its widest points and is traversed by a single navigable river. Few countries possess such favourable conditions for nationwide electrification.
Why then is it still impossible to guarantee affordable, reliable, 24-hour electricity across the country? The answer lies not in geography, population size, climate, or technical impossibility. The answer lies in governance and leadership.
Successive governments have failed to build a viable and self-sufficient energy sector capable of guaranteeing national energy security. Instead of long-term planning, strategic investment, operational efficiency, and accountability, the sector has too often been characterized by poor leadership, lack of vision and ambition, weak oversight, waste, inefficiency, and a culture in which failure carries no consequences. Corruption and incompetence are not merely tolerated but they are also perpetually excused while citizens continue to bear the costs.
Today, the Gambia remains heavily dependent on imported electricity despite decades of promises and massive financial injections into the sector. No country can genuinely claim energy security when a substantial portion of its electricity supply depends on external providers. Energy is not merely a utility service. It is also a strategic national security asset. A nation that cannot reliably generate sufficient electricity for its own citizens remains vulnerable.
Citizens should therefore reject attempts to normalize this situation. Every government press release that celebrates achievements while avoiding accountability for persistent failures is an insult to the intelligence of the Gambian people. What citizens need are not public relations exercises but transparency and accountability for the billions invested in the sector.
The Gambia is not a poor country condemned to darkness. It possesses the resources, the geography, the human capacity, and the financial support necessary to build a reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity system. The fact that this has not been achieved is not an accident of history or circumstance. It is the result of human decisions, policy failures, and a lack of accountability.
The time has come for citizens to demand answers. Every dalasi invested in the energy sector must be accounted for. Every failed promise must be scrutinized. Every official entrusted with managing this critical sector must be held to the highest standards of transparency and performance.
Electricity is not a privilege. It is a fundamental human right. It is an essential public service and a foundation for national development. Gambians deserve better than perpetual blackouts, endless excuses, and unfulfilled promises.
Resist!
For The Gambia, Our Homeland