By Alagie Saidy Barrow
I came across a conversation recently and read where one aggrieved person said he brought some investors to The Gambia who were willing and able to invest millions. According to this person, he approached some senior government officials and presented the projects his investors wanted to work on (Apparently, this is very normal). He said the government officials they approached were keen on the project, and the meeting went very well. According to him, his guests left their business cards with one government official, and this official decided to contact the investor without his knowledge. He claims that’s where the problems started. He said the government official wanted to meet with the investor without going through him. When he confronted the government official, he admitted that it was an oversight. They rearranged the meeting, but it never happened. The government official ghosted them.
The man recounted how he tried to meet with other government officials but he was met with one failed promise after another. Then he met with someone who promised to arrange a meeting with President Adama Barrow. He said this person even has a diplomatic passport and is very well-connected. Long story short, he couldn’t get a meeting with the President and when they got tired of running around without getting anywhere, his investors packed up and left. The man was left very angry and discouraged. He blamed greedy officials who he said backstabbed him at every turn.
I was hoping the man would mention the names of those he met or those who supposedly backstabbed him but he didn’t. I was also hoping he would mention what areas his investor friends were interested in but he didn’t. Now I don’t know how much of his story is true but I do know that it sounds somewhat plausible. If you narrate a story that involves greedy government officials, add a dash of people backstabbing each other, and include money, chances are many of us would believe you because backstabbing and greediness are quite normal for far too many of us.
My concern with his story, whether true or not, is this idea that we should embrace and welcome any and every so-called investor into our country! The concern I have is this: How thoroughly do we investigate these investors, and do we ever think about foreign investment as it relates to our national security? When I hear our government officials privatising key national infrastructure, I always wonder if we considered the national security implications. Do we know what Securiport does with our data? What are the national security implications of Africa Fifty operating a key infrastructure like the Senegambia bridge? How about buying “electricity” from Senegal and Karpower? Many of our prominent business owners have foreign partners. Do we know who these foreign partners are? When people bring investors here, how much of a background check do we do on these investors? Or is that we are just happy to have “investors and partners?
Is it our position that because we love money, therefore all money is good? Should people interested in investing in the country make the President’s office their target point of call? Have you ever asked yourself why a country with an unstable power supply, corruption, and a mesmerising carousel of bureaucracy would attract foreign investors? One of the earliest aphorisms I learned as a young boy was that all that glitter is not gold. But to many Gambians like the man who ended up complaining that Gambia du dem, when we see a glittering investor, we think we are about to strike gold! And that includes government officials!
