A New Modern City
Imagine a New Gambia
where dreams are made into realities
The Gambia's development has, for decades, been concentrated in a narrow strip along the Atlantic coast. The Greater Banjul Area holds a disproportionate share of the country's population, employment, investment, healthcare, education, and economic activity. The result is a coastal urban core under enormous and worsening strain: roads overwhelmed by traffic volumes they were never designed to carry, housing demand far exceeding supply, drainage systems inadequate for current population density, and land so scarce that development has spilled into areas unsuitable for construction. Meanwhile, the interior regions remain dramatically under-resourced. Young people leave the Central River Region, the Upper River Region, and the North Bank Region for the capital, further concentrating pressure at the coast and further depleting the interior of the talent and energy that could build it up. The National Builders Party will correct this imbalance through the most ambitious infrastructure project in The Gambia's history.
Imagine a Gambia where a modern city rises from the banks of the River Gambia in the heart of the country. A riverfront promenade where families gather at the weekend. A Central Business District drawing banks, tech companies, and regional headquarters. A Knowledge and Innovation Quarter where university students and entrepreneurs share the same buildings. A Cultural and Civic Precinct with a national theatre, museums, monuments, and public squares. Walkable neighborhoods where every resident is within comfortable distance of a school, a health center, a market, a mosque or church, and a park. Smart city infrastructure built into the ground from day one. Theme parks, botanical gardens, children's play parks, and green space covering at least a fifth of the entire city. A media broadcasting station. A shopping center. Hotels along the river. This is not a government administrative compound. It is a city, built for every Gambian, designed to last one hundred years.
The NBP will select the new city's location through a rigorous, transparent, professionally conducted process guided by evidence rather than political preference.
Priority will be given to sites in the Central River Region or North Bank Region, with access to the River Gambia as a core requirement. The river provides natural beauty, tourism potential, water supply, riverine transport access, and ecological context that no landlocked site can offer. The city will also connect multiple regions through planned roads, ferries, and eventually rail lines. An internationally experienced urban planning firm will evaluate a minimum of five candidate sites, producing a ranked shortlist with full documented rationale. Community consultation will be conducted at all candidate sites. The final decision will be made by Cabinet, publicly announced with full disclosure of assessment findings, and ratified by the National Assembly. No site preparation begins before a full Environmental and Social Impact Assessment is completed, reviewed, and publicly published.
The NBP will commission a world-class urban planning team to design a master plan that governs the city's development for the next hundred years, built on principles that make it genuinely livable from day one.
The master plan will be governed by non-negotiable planning principles. Mixed-use zoning ensures residential neighborhoods are walkable to markets, schools, health centers, workplaces, and green space, avoiding the car-dependent segregation that has degraded urban quality of life in Greater Banjul. Climate-responsive design means every building and street is oriented for natural ventilation and shade, rooftops are designed for solar collection, and drainage infrastructure is engineered for the worst projected rainfall events. At least 20 percent of the city's total planned area will be permanent green space: parks, gardens, riverfront promenades, urban forests, sports fields, and ecological corridors. The master plan will be a published statutory document accessible to every Gambian. The planning team will work in direct partnership with Gambian architects, urban planners, and engineers so the city is both internationally informed and deeply Gambian in its identity.
The NBP will build the new city with 21st-century digital infrastructure embedded from the foundation, not retrofitted as an afterthought.
Fiber optic cable will be laid in underground conduit alongside every primary and secondary road during initial civil works, making broadband connection to every building marginal in cost from the start. A City Operations Center will coordinate traffic management, utility monitoring, emergency response dispatch, and public services on a single unified digital platform. Every public building will have reliable broadband internet. Every street will have functional lighting. A city-wide free public Wi-Fi network will cover all public spaces, parks, transport stops, and civic buildings. A data center built in Phase 1 will serve both the city's own digital infrastructure and provide commercial colocation services for businesses, making the new city a digital infrastructure hub for the entire interior region. The city will be a working demonstration of what digital infrastructure looks like when it is planned rather than improvised.
The NBP will organize the new city into distinct, purposefully designed districts, each with its own character, and make the River Gambia the city's defining public asset.
The Riverfront District will be the city's public face: a promenade, public parks, a river terminal for passenger and freight services, waterfront restaurants and markets, cultural venues, and premium residential and hospitality development facing the water. This is where visitors arrive and where residents gather. The Central Business District will be the commercial and institutional heart, planned for corporate headquarters, banking, professional services, government offices, conference facilities, and a modern hotel district. The Knowledge and Innovation Quarter will house the university campus, research institutions, technology parks, and the NTEA Innovation Hub. The Cultural and Civic Precinct will contain the National Performance Theatre, museums, monuments, heritage centers, national monuments, the city's main library, and the public squares where community life takes place. Each residential neighborhood will be planned as a self-contained community with its own school, health post, market, place of worship, community center, and park within walking distance.
The NBP will build the new city as a place Gambians actually want to live in, with the cultural institutions, family recreation facilities, and creative spaces that make a city worth choosing.
The city will include a National Performance Theatre designed to international standards, a National Stadium with a minimum capacity of 20,000, a Sports and Recreation Complex with an aquatics center and indoor courts, a Gambian Heritage Museum curated by Gambian historians, a national science and innovation museum with hands-on exhibits, and a Creative Industries Hub with studio space, editing suites, and design workshops for Gambian filmmakers, musicians, and designers. A National Broadcasting Center will house TV and radio production facilities and a media station providing opportunities for journalism, education, and content creation. Theme parks, amusement facilities, children's play parks, botanical gardens, and green zones will support wellness and mental health for families and tourists. A state-of-the-art shopping center combining retail, entertainment, and restaurants will serve residents and visitors alike.
The NBP will establish the New City Development Authority as a statutory body with the mandate, the budget, and the authority to plan, procure, coordinate, and oversee every aspect of the city's construction.
The NCDA will be chaired by a Director General appointed by the President through a transparent merit-based process. The Board will include representatives from the Ministries of Lands, Works, Finance, and Local Government alongside independent urban planning, environmental, legal, and financial experts. The NCDA will report quarterly to the National Assembly on project progress, expenditure, and any deviations from the approved master plan or budget. All major procurement decisions will be subject to national public procurement rules and published in the national procurement register. A dedicated Public Engagement Office will keep all Gambians informed and consulted throughout the development period.
The NBP will ensure the new city belongs to all Gambians by reserving a minimum of 30 percent of all residential units for low and lower-middle income households at rates that working families can afford.
The city will offer affordable, middle-income, and premium housing estates planned with zoned layouts, proper drainage, clean water access, and transport connections. Green and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods will prioritize walkability and reduce traffic pollution. Priority allocation of affordable units will go to civil servants relocating from Greater Banjul, teachers and healthcare workers posted to the new city, and young Gambians under 35 applying through the national housing programme. A New City Housing Grant will support qualifying first-time buyers during Phase 1. A New City Entrepreneur Package combining a business registration grant, subsidized co-working space, and startup support will be available to entrepreneurs who relocate in Phases 1 and 2. Tax incentives and land leases will be offered to businesses and residents who move early. The city's public spaces, parks, markets, libraries, and cultural venues will be free to enter and open to everyone.
The National Builders Party will build the new city in three structured phases over 15 years and plan from the outset for it to become a fully self-governing democratic municipality.
Phase 1 (Years 1 to 4) covers site selection, master plan approval, foundation infrastructure, the river terminal, the NCDA headquarters, the first commercial center and media station, the first residential neighborhood, and a target of 10,000 residents. Phase 2 (Years 4 to 8) delivers government ministry relocations, the university campus, the district hospital, stadiums, theme parks, arts centers, tech hubs, educational institutions, and a target of 50,000 residents. Phase 3 (Years 8 to 15) completes all planned neighborhoods, parks, commercial zones, and a target population of 150,000 to 200,000 residents. The transition to elected city government is triggered when the city reaches 50,000 permanent residents, at which point an elected Mayor and City Council assume governance responsibility. City governance will be designed to become financially self-sustaining through its own revenue streams, reducing dependence on central government transfers over time.
For Interior Region Communities
The new city is being built in the heart of The Gambia deliberately. Every government ministry, university, hospital, and business that locates there brings jobs, demand, and investment to the Central River Region, the North Bank Region, and the Upper River Region. For the first time, the geography of national development will shift away from the coast and toward the communities that have been waiting the longest for it. You will not have to travel to Banjul to access what your country has built.
For Young Gambians
The new city is the most direct answer the NBP can give to the question of why a young Gambian should stay. It will have universities, hospitals, technology hubs, a national theatre, a media broadcasting station, a Creative Industries Hub, sports facilities, botanical gardens, and a Central Business District that creates professional careers in sectors the current economy does not yet fully support. Priority housing allocations go to Gambians under 35. The Entrepreneur Package is designed for you. Free public Wi-Fi covers the entire city. This city is being built for your generation to grow into.
For Every Family
A new city in the interior means Greater Banjul gets room to breathe. The chronic overcrowding, traffic pressure, housing scarcity, and strained services that characterize life in and around the capital today are the direct result of too much of the country concentrated in one place. As population and investment distribute more evenly, every part of The Gambia improves. The new city is not just for the people who move there. It is an investment in the entire country, and its parks, libraries, cultural venues, and public spaces will be free and open to all.
This city will be the most visible proof of what the National Builders Party means when it says Think Big. Build Big. Every road laid, every school opened, every tree planted, and every business that opens in the new city's Central Business District is evidence that a small nation with a clear plan and the discipline to execute it can build something that changes the entire geography of its development. The new city is built with fiber optic infrastructure under every road, free public Wi-Fi in every public space, and a City Operations Center coordinating services digitally from day one. At least 20 percent of its total area is permanent green space. Its neighborhoods are walkable. Its riverfront is a public asset for every resident. Its cultural institutions celebrate Gambian identity. Thirty percent of its homes are reserved for working families. The National Builders Party will build this city, for this generation and every one that follows.
Every great nation has a city that announced its ambitions to the world. The National Builders Party will build The Gambia's. A real, functioning, purposefully designed city rising from the banks of the River Gambia, built smart, built green, built for every Gambian, for this generation and every one that follows.
Think Big. Build Big.
Read the plan. Join the movement.
Vote NBP