A loan agreement was on Friday signed in Banjul between the Republic of The Gambia and Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development. The Fund will provide a loan of 3,100,000 Kuwaiti Dinars, equivalent to about US$10,850,000, to assist in the financing of the Banjul international Airport Improvement Project (Phase II).

The loan agreement was signed on behalf of the Republic of The Gambia by Honourable Mousa Gibril Bala-Gaye, Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs and by Mr. Hamad S. Al-Omar, Deputy Director-General of the Kuwaiti Fund for Arab Economic Development on behalf of the Fund.

The project aims at satisfying the increase in passenger and cargo traffic at BanjulInternationalAirport, and to further ensure its safety. Aimed at improving the operational standards of the airport, the project consists of rehabilitation and expansion of the existing apron, construction of two new taxiways and a building for fire and ambulance services, rehabilitation of the existing terminal building and the control tower, supply and installation of navigation systems, signs, pavement marking and apron lighting, fire rescue vehicle, in addition to consultancy services for the supervision of construction works.

The total cost of the project is estimated at about 776.66 million Dalasis, equivalent to about 10.1 million Kuwaiti Dinars of which the Fund’s loan covers about 31%. The main co-financing are the Saudi Fund and the OPEC Fund. The project is expected to be completed by mid 2010.

By concluding this agreement, the Fund would have provided to the Republic of The Gambia nine loans totalling about 22.8 million Kuwaiti Dinars, equivalent to about 79.8 million US Dollars, to finance projects in various sectors, in addition to five technical assistance grant and totalling about 770,000 Kuwaiti Dinars, equivalent to about 2.7 million US Dollars.