The Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Seedy Keita, has informed the National Assembly that the government had settled D80 million in arrears owed to the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC), alongside the disbursement of a D1 billion subsidy during the 2026 budget implementation period.
Presenting an update on budget execution, Minister Keita explained that the payments formed part of the government’s confirmed obligations to the utility company. He noted that timing differences accounted for variations in reported expenditure across quarters.
According to him, Centralized Services recorded a 13.23 per cent execution rate, driven largely by partial disbursements, including D80 million in arrears to NAWEC and D60.5 million in other verified debts, with additional allocations scheduled for release in subsequent quarters.
“A significant portion of the budget remains scheduled for disbursement in later quarters,” he told lawmakers.
Clarifying the nature of the payments, Keita stressed that the D80 million represented a settlement of outstanding arrears between government buildings and NAWEC.
“The D80 million is payment of arrears to NAWEC. Let’s clarify that because on NAWEC has arrears, government buildings have arrears owed to NAWEC, that is where the D80 million is from. The D1 billion, which is the subsidy to NAWEC, was paid in the second quarter,” he explained.
He further stated that the D1 billion subsidy allocated to NAWEC was disbursed in April, within the second quarter, rather than in the first quarter reporting period. This, he said, affected overall execution rates.
“If you look at the budget of the Ministry, the D1.5 billion, D1 billion was a subsidy to NAWEC, and the D1 billion was not paid in the first quarter, but rather in the second quarter,” he added.
Minister Keita assured lawmakers that the government continues to meet its sectoral obligations while maintaining accurate fiscal reporting across all quarters. Responding to concerns about NAWEC’s structural dependence on government support, he reaffirmed the administration’s commitment to backing the utility.
“We can assure this August Assembly that we have been supporting NAWEC not only in terms of the subsidy, but all the loans that have gone into providing the generators are being serviced by the Government of The Gambia,” he said.
