By Lamin Cham
President Adama Barrow on Saturday declared that the proposed five-star hotel in Bijilo, the Radisson Blu Banjul, to be built as part of Gambia’s hosting of the OIC summit, is the single largest investment in the tourism sector since the country attained Independence in 1965.
The hotel will have 400 high-end rooms alongside 60 presidential and royal suites, conference and meeting venues, ballroom, fitness and business centres, speciality restaurants among other features, making it one of its kind in the region.
The Radisson Blu Banjul is established under the Immogam Hotels and Resorts and jointly owned by The Gambia and Immoland Sarl, an international real estate investment outfit.
While laying the foundation stone of the hotel, Mr Barrow said the OIC Summit projects are designed to be legacy projects, and their advantages, benefits and impact will far outlive the summit itself.
He added that since three years, his government mobilised some 300 million dollars towards projects in connection with the OIC hosting. The president therefore urged all Gambians to join hands to see the successful implementation of the projects, adding that once a date has been fixed for the summit, it would be made known.
Yankuba Dibba, Chief Executive Officer of OIC Gambia Secretariat, said the project took three good years for it to progress in the Gambia and revealed that the investors, Immoland Sarl won the nod to do the job out of a fair and transparent procedure.
Abdoulaye Thiam, chairman of Immogam, assured that the construction of the hotel will start immediately and will be completed within 15 months.
Thiam, a Senegalese with Gambian ancestry, said the hotel will create job opportunities for the youths of The Gambia and Senegal and thanked Gambians for their warm reception of him and his team.
Hamat Bah, Minister of Tourism, said the five-star hotel would boost Gambia’s tourism sector. He looked forward to the day it will be inaugurated. The minster called for investments in airline industry to connect The Gambia to the wider world, adding that facilities such as the new hotel can harness their potential in attracting visitors.
