Two Mandates, One Coastline
The Gambia’s Tourism Board and its Department of Geology have put their signatures on a memorandum of understanding built for one narrow purpose: keeping tourism plans and mining licences from colliding on the same stretch of coast. The deal, signed on June 26, 2026, and reported by The Point, covers the Tourism Development Area, or TDA, where the tourism authority manages the land while the geology department watches what lies beneath it.
That split is the whole problem. Ground set aside for hotels and resorts can also sit on mineral deposits the other agency is meant to license. The new framework, drawn up after weeks of consultation and technical talks between the two bodies and their parent ministries, is meant to stop one parcel from being promised to two futures at once, and to give investors in both sectors a steadier environment.
What the Officials Said
Ida Jeng Njie, director general of the Gambia Tourism Board, called the signing a milestone: the first formal accord the two institutions have ever concluded. “Our gem, which is the TDA, is where your gem is. We share the same resource, and as government institutions, we must ensure that investors are provided with a conducive environment,” she said. A joint committee is planned as a one-stop platform, she added, so investors no longer shuttle between agencies to get answers, and she credited both parent ministries, tourism and culture on one side and petroleum, energy and mines on the other, for pushing the work through, calling it a model other sectors could copy.
For Alieu Jawo, director of the Department of Geology, the pact corrects an old habit. The two institutions once worked in isolation, with mining licences and tourism allocations sometimes issued with no one comparing notes. “In The Gambia, most of our mineral deposits are located along the coast, which is also prime land for tourism development. Therefore, managing these resources in a win-win situation is very important,” he said. Under the agreement, each side stays informed about the other’s plans, which should let them map and manage the coastal zone together.
The Human Side of Paperwork
For families on the coast, land that is fought over builds nothing; land with a clear owner can. The ceremony drew officials from both ministries, along with senior government figures and technical staff, praising the teams for finishing the framework quickly and voicing hope that the cooperation holds through implementation.
The concrete gain is procedural: one committee, shared information, and a rule that the same beach cannot be a resort and a quarry at the same time. Whether that attracts the hotels, and the jobs behind them, is what Gambians will watch next.
