Construct Mega Municipal Plazas
Building Modern Plazas in Town Centers to Promote Inland Tourism
The prosperity of The Gambia cannot be built on one strip of coastline. The Greater Banjul Area and the coastal tourism strip account for the overwhelming majority of formal employment, hotel accommodation, commercial activity, and development investment. The interior, from Brikama through the North Bank to Basse and the upper river, receives a fraction of this investment despite housing a significant proportion of the population and possessing natural, cultural, and agricultural assets that could sustain a far more vibrant regional economy. The absence of quality hospitality infrastructure in regional towns is both a symptom and a cause of this imbalance. When a government delegation travels to Basse for a regional meeting, when an NGO team visits Farafenni to assess a project, when a researcher needs to spend a week in the Central River Region, when a business operator wants to explore investment in Soma, there is no quality hotel, no reliable conference room, no restaurant that serves a meal to international standards. That absence makes the interior less accessible, less attractive to investment, and less capable of capturing the economic activity that passes through it. And the inland tourism vision of the river route, heritage sites, and eco-lodges cannot be realised without the accommodation backbone that keeps visitors in the interior overnight.
A national network of modern municipal plazas, each anchored by a quality hotel, that makes every major town in The Gambia a genuine destination with the hospitality infrastructure to receive visitors in comfort and style. Where the government minister travelling to the North Bank has a proper hotel. Where the international researcher studying the River Gambia can base themselves in Janjanbureh for a month. Where the regional business conference has a venue that reflects the seriousness of the occasion. Where the tourist doing the river route has a comfortable bed at every overnight stop. Where the town that hosts the plaza becomes a hub of commercial activity, small business growth, and community employment that spreads prosperity beyond the coastal strip. That is what this network will build.
The NBP will build ten modern municipal plazas across The Gambia in two phases, prioritising the regional towns where the gap between what exists and what is needed is greatest, beginning with the upper river and working systematically through every region.
Phase 1 locations are Basse in the Upper River Region, Brikama as the West Coast commercial hub, Farafenni as the North Bank junction and border crossing, Barra as the northern ferry gateway and tourism entry point, Janjanbureh as the heritage tourism anchor on the river route, and Soma as the Lower River junction and transport hub. Phase 2 will follow with Bansang in the Central River Region, Kanifing as an urban commercial hub, Bwiam in the West Coast, and Kerewan in the North Bank. Basse is the single highest priority: the capital of the largest and most remote administrative region, where the hospitality gap is most severe and the development impact of a quality plaza most transformative. Janjanbureh is critical because the river tourism route cannot function without it. All ten plazas will be operational within the first two government terms.
The NBP will build every plaza to a nationally defined standard that delivers quality hospitality, conference capacity, and commercial amenities, while allowing architectural character to reflect the regional setting and cultural identity of each location.
Every plaza will include quality hotel accommodation from three to five stars, conference halls and business meeting rooms capable of hosting regional government events and private sector gatherings, restaurants offering local and international cuisine, tourist information desks, cultural showcases, shopping outlets and food courts, high-speed internet and modern guest amenities, solar power integration and sustainable water systems, parking and shuttle services, and staff quarters and training facilities. Hotels will accommodate local and international guests with pricing models that ensure accessibility to government departments, researchers, and domestic tourists. The design of each plaza will incorporate elements that reflect the specific town's heritage, landscape, and cultural character, making each one a genuine expression of its place rather than a uniform national template dropped into every location.
The NBP will ensure that every plaza is built by local workers, stocked by local suppliers, and managed to create lasting employment for the community it serves, maximising the economic multiplier effect in every town.
Each plaza will employ local staff directly in hotel management, housekeeping, security, maintenance, culinary services, conference coordination, and tourist information. Local food suppliers, market vendors, transport operators, craft producers, and tour guides will all benefit from the consistent demand that an occupied hotel generates. A government-built and operated plaza creates the conditions for private investment in surrounding commercial, retail, and hospitality development: when a town has a quality hotel, the economic logic of nearby restaurant development, craft market investment, and retail development changes. The plaza is the anchor that attracts the cluster around it. A training programme integrated into each plaza will ensure that staff are certified to the national hospitality standard set by the National Hospitality Training Institute, creating a cadre of qualified professionals across all seven regions.
The National Builders Party will integrate the plaza network directly into the national tourism infrastructure and the government's regional operations, making every plaza both a tourism destination and a governance asset.
Each plaza hotel will serve as a node on the River Gambia Tourism Route, enabling visitors to experience the full country rather than a coastal fraction of it. A tourist doing the river route will sleep in comfort at Janjanbureh, attend a cultural performance at the community venue, eat locally sourced food prepared to national standard, and wake up ready for the next day of the journey. For government, the plazas end the governance inefficiency that forces officials, court sittings, health teams, and training programmes to either commute long distances daily from the capital or accept inadequate accommodation. Regional government can operate from regional towns when the infrastructure for it exists. The plazas make that possible. A See Gambia First domestic tourism campaign will specifically promote plaza-based interior travel packages for Gambian families, diaspora visitors, and school excursion groups.
For Interior Communities
A plaza in your town means permanent jobs, consistent demand for local food and services, and a venue that makes your town visible on the map of places worth visiting. When a government delegation stays in Basse rather than commuting from Banjul, local businesses serve them. When a researcher bases themselves in Janjanbureh for a month, local transport and food operators benefit every day. The plaza does not just house visitors. It opens a spending channel into the local economy that did not exist before.
For Young Gambians
Hotel management, catering, conference coordination, tourism guiding, and hospitality maintenance are all careers the plaza creates in your region, not on the coast. The National Hospitality Training Institute certification built into each plaza's staff programme means you leave with qualifications, not just experience. And the private investment the plaza attracts, the restaurants, craft markets, and tour operations that cluster around a working hotel, creates the entrepreneurial opportunities for young people who want to build their own businesses rather than work for someone else.
For Every Family
When investment reaches your region, the quality of every public service improves over time. Schools, health facilities, and infrastructure get more attention when the government has good reason to be present. A town with a working conference centre, a restaurant, and a hotel is a town that attracts decision-makers and their decisions. The plazas are not luxury additions to communities that are doing fine. They are the missing infrastructure that allows interior communities to participate fully in the national economy the NBP is building.
The New National Standard is simple: no major town in The Gambia should lack a quality hotel, a functional conference room, and a restaurant capable of welcoming any visitor. When the plaza in Basse opens, the Upper River Region becomes a place where a government delegation can spend a week doing serious work. Where a researcher can base themselves for a month. Where a tourist coming off the river route has a comfortable room and a good meal. Where local farmers sell their produce every week to a kitchen that serves guests every day. That is what a building does when it is built in the right place, at the right standard, governed correctly. The National Builders Party will build ten of them. And then more.
Ten modern plazas. Ten towns transformed. Ten communities connected to the national economy in a way they have never been before. The prosperity of The Gambia will not be built on one strip of coastline. It will be built everywhere. Starting now.
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