President Barrow Collects Great Builder Super Prize for Senegambia Bridge

President Adama Barrow has been awarded the Great Builder Super Prize – The Africa Road Builders Babacar Ndiaye Trophy 2019 for “his personal leadership in building the Senegambia Bridge that links Gambia to Senegal.”

The announcement was made at the sideline of the African Development Bank Group annual meeting in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea where former president Yahya Jammeh is in exile.

Initiated by The Africa Road Builders (ARB), the Babacar Ndiaye Trophy is an award for heads of state whose countries initiate outstanding projects or achievements in relation to the development of roads, transportation and mobility.

The award was received by Mamburay Njie, the Gambian Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, who represented the president at the ceremony.

“It is a great honour to receive this award on behalf of his Excellency, President Adama Barrow, who humbly accepts it in recognition of his outstanding work on roads and transport and of his personal leadership that enabled the building of the Senegambia Bridge,” Njie was quoted by an African Development Bank article as saying.

“The African Development Bank is investing heavily in infrastructure, but we are still a long way off our expectations. It is through projects like the Senegambia Bridge that we will achieve them,” said Mike Salawou, AfDB’s Division Manager, Department of Infrastructure and Urban Development.

The 942-metre Senegambia Bridge was opened on 24 January 2019 by President Adama Barrow and his Senegalese counterpart, President Macky Sall.

“Its construction was funded entirely by the Bank through a $88.4 million grant to Gambia and a $4.4 million loan to the Senegalese Government,” AfDB said.

The past winners of the Babacar Ndiaye Trophy include Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta.