Ferry service boss hints lack of gov’t subsidy contributes to ferry problems

Speaking to QTV Gambia Good Morning Show on Thursday, Lamin Jawara, the General Manager of Ferries, revealed that President Adama Barrow’s government is not paying subsidies to the ferry service, thus contributing to the problem faced by their operation team.

He said: “Fares we charge for the ferry cannot take care of our needs. All that we collect cannot finance the ferry from Banjul to Barra. If we subtract our staff salaries, we will be left with about 15% of the revenue. The amount cannot buy fuel, spare parts, materials, lubricants, payment of ferry insurance, and staff welfare. The fares are not enough and only the government subsidy can help us.”

“Because the subsidy is not coming, we cannot do critical maintenance on time. We spend 47 million on provincial ferry service alone and they fetch less than 12 million. To solve the problem, we need the government to leave us to further increase the fares to the point we will have monies to operate the ferries, buy the spare parts and fuel and as well save monies to replace the ferries when they are old.”

He further indicated that the lifetime of a ferry is between 20 to 30 years, saying apart from Kanilai and Kunta Kinteh ferries, the rest of the ferries are over 20 years. He said the last time they changed the engines of Kanilai was in 2014 and that they are over-exhausted and need replacement.

Mr Jawara noted that those engines are out of production, thus we need reengineering.