by Abdoulie John
As The Gambia River Basin Organisation (OMVG) prepares for its 51st Session of Council of Ministers, High Commissioner Demba Jallow on Monday highlighted the major successes achieved in recent months, including milestone infrastructure projects and new policy adoptions.
“Our collective action has made it possible to achieve essential milestones. This has consolidated OMVG’s role as a driver of development in West Africa,” Jallow told participants at the opening of the preparatory meeting of experts. The meeting is being held in Conakry, Guinea.
The 51st session of the OMVG Council of Ministers is scheduled for October 31, 2025, in the Republic of Guinea. Delegates from The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Sénégal will attend the meeting.
“Among our notable achievements is the successful Conference of Heads of State and Government in December 2024. This event resulted in renewed leadership structures and the approval of significant updates to laws governing river status and joint infrastructure financing,” he explained.
According to the OMVG High Commissioner, this year’s major success is “undoubtedly the completion and full commissioning of our interconnection network.”
He then added: “This strategic infrastructure, with its 1,677 km of high-voltage lines, 15 transformer stations and 2 dispatching centres, is now an operational reality. Energy exchanges are now effective between our Member States, materializing our ambition to provide clean, reliable, and cost-effective energy, while reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.”
He emphasized that this achievement is a perfect example of the strength of their cooperation, demonstrated by power exchanges and expressing gratitude to Guinea.
More importantly, High Commissioner Jallow noted that 2025 has witnessed what he described as the “effective operationalization” of SOGESART, OMVG’s energy infrastructure company.
It should be noted that in June this year, OMVG successfully held its first PDDI Investor Forum in Dakar. Other accomplishments also include the renewal of the OMVG’s bodies, with the assumption of office of a new High Commissioner in March, instilling a new synergy “based on good governance, rationalization of expenditure and transparency.”
OMVG High Commissioner took the opportunity to remind the gathering of this renewal, which is coupled with “the launch of the process of revising our legal and institutional texts, which equips us with the necessary tools to face current and future challenges with agility and resilience.”
