Banjul, 30 November - The Government of The Gambia has released its 2022 contribution of GMD 28 Million to its flagship Programme for Accelerated Community Development (PACD) Rural Electrification Project. 

The funding will allow PACD to extend electrification to 7 additional villages in the North Bank Region, namely Medina Serigne Mass, Berending, Ndungu Kebbeh, Buniadou, Albreda and Kuntaya.  

Electricity coverage in The Gambia is estimated at 35 percent of the urban population and 6 percent of the rural population. Only 10% of villages in the North Bank Region are electrified as of 2019.  

“The expansion of electricity in the rural areas will enable us to enhance our contribution to The Gambia’s sustainable development path. Together with partners, we will better meet the targets in the electricity roadmap of the country,”

highlighted Alieu Loum, National Coordinator Programme for Accelerated Development (PACD) and Director General of the Department for Strategic Policy & Delivery, Ministry of Public Service, Office of The President 

Under the PACD electricity component, ten (10) communities in Lower Nuimi, Upper Nuimi and Jokadu districts of North Bank Region have been supplied with electricity. 96 SMEs have also benefitted as well as 32 public utilities. 

Overall, 69 additional electrical poles have been installed in North Bank Region since the start of the PACD project in 2021. As of September 2022, 478 Households and 3,824 people had access to electricity in the region.  

Provision of electricity to the seven identified communities will help to bridge the uneven access to electricity, enhance the economic opportunities of the population in these areas and improve their social wellbeing thereby assisting in the reduction of poverty in the country.    

“To accelerate the achievement of the 2030 Agenda, there is urgent need to scale-up in dynamic, innovative partnerships for The Gambia’s development,”

said Aissata De, UNDP Resident Representative of The Gambia.

“The Programme for Accelerated Community Development sets actions beyond temporary solutions. By bridging the divide between rural and urban areas, PACD will contribute to significant improvement of the living conditions of people in the rural areas through improving sustainable access to basic socio-economic infrastructure and services, which will support more sustainable development in The Gambia.” 

she concludes.

The Programme for Accelerated Community Development (PACD) was started in April 2020 by The Gambia government to bridge the rural-urban development gap by reaching out to hard-to-reach communities and providing access to basic social services such as potable drinking water, electricity, labour saving devices, and post-harvest processing equipment, exotic livestock breeds for milk production and construction of rural access roads. PACD has intervened in selected rural communities in all five (5) regions West Coast Region, Lower River Region, North Bank Region, Central River Region, and Upper River Region targeting 89 Communities and 539,540 people in 38 Districts. Phase I, also called the Pilot Phase, ended in December 2021; however, the aim is to consolidate the results achieved and transit towards Phase II in 2022. The year 2022 is therefore being used as a bridging phase to complete and scale up some of the activities implemented during the pilot phase. To this end, the government of The Gambia is responding to the social demands through a partnership with UNDP to address the needs of vulnerable communities. 

Media contact: 

Alieu Loum, PACD National Coordinator, Tel +220 9977569; alieu.loum@gmail.com  

Rohey Samba-Jallow, PACD Communications Expert, Tel +220 7471327; rohey.samba-jallow@undp.org