Transforming Brikama into a Modern Commercial City
a comprehensive urban transformation
Brikama is the second most populated city in The Gambia. It is not the second city in terms of investment, infrastructure, or the ambition of its planning. It has been left behind. Brikama sits at the junction of some of the most important road corridors in The Gambia, making it by geography a natural commercial hub for the West Coast Region and a strategic gateway between the Greater Banjul Area and the communities to the south, southeast, and inland. This geographic advantage has never been translated into the infrastructure that would allow it to function as the regional commercial capital it should be. The market area is overcrowded, inadequately maintained, and poorly drained. The road network through the city centre is congested, narrow where it matters most, and without the drainage that prevents rainy season flooding from halting commercial activity. There is no hospital of the scale the West Coast Region requires, forcing residents to travel to Kanifing and Banjul for specialist care they should access at home. And a city that has produced some of The Gambia's most celebrated musicians has no performance venue worthy of that culture. The National Builders Party will transform all of it.
A Brikama that functions as a fully realised commercial city. With a city centre that is clean, organised, and built to a standard that attracts investment and serves its population with dignity. With roads that move traffic efficiently, drain properly, and are safe for pedestrians. With a referral hospital that keeps the people of the West Coast Region from having to travel to Banjul for the care they need. With a performance theatre that gives Brikama's extraordinary musical and artistic culture a stage worthy of it. Not the second city in a country of overlooked places. The second city in a country that builds everywhere. Planned. Built. Invested in. And proud of what it has become.
The NBP will redevelop Brikama's city centre market area and surrounding council structures into a modern, mixed-use commercial district with the organised retail, banking, office, and public spaces that a city of Brikama's scale and ambition needs.
A Brikama City Master Plan, developed through genuine community consultation with residents, market traders, business owners, community leaders, and young people, will be the foundational statutory document governing all development in the city for the next twenty years, published in full and freely accessible to all. The city centre redevelopment will deliver organised retail spaces, indoor and outdoor markets with proper drainage and lighting, banking centres, offices, supermarkets, restaurants, and public gathering areas. A cultural and entertainment quarter anchored by the performance theatre will be designated adjacent to the commercial core. Architectural design standards will apply to all new development in the city centre, with a greenspace and parks network ensuring that the transformed Brikama is a city people want to live and work in rather than simply pass through. A Brikama Urban Development Authority will provide the dedicated governance structure to plan and deliver the programme.
The NBP will design and build a modern road network throughout Brikama, replacing congested, flood-prone streets with wider, well-drained, properly lit roads that allow the city to function as the regional commercial gateway its geography has always positioned it to be.
The road network upgrade will widen and repave the principal streets through the city centre and the main commercial corridors, install a modern drainage system engineered for peak rainy season rainfall, and extend pedestrian walkways, designated loading zones, and street lighting throughout the upgraded network. All major intersections will be redesigned with defined turning lanes and pedestrian crossing infrastructure. Connecting streets in the commercial district will be upgraded to a defined secondary standard. A network of public parks, pocket parks, and tree-planting corridors defined in the Master Plan will create the green relief that makes a dense urban environment liveable and give residents the public gathering spaces that organised city life requires. Roads leading to and around the new development zones will be paved and upgraded, creating the improved connectivity that brings economic activity to every part of the city.
The NBP will build a world-class referral hospital in Brikama that serves the entire West Coast Region and ends the injustice of families travelling to Banjul for specialist care that should be available to them at home.
The Brikama Referral Hospital will include specialised wings for trauma care, women's health and maternity, paediatrics, diagnostics and imaging, and long-term patient services. Advanced medical equipment, a fully trained specialist staff establishment, and modern emergency services will deliver the level of care that West Coast Region families currently have to travel to the capital to access. A hospital and medical services district zone designated in the Brikama City Master Plan will provide space for the hospital itself and for the private medical, pharmacy, and allied health services that a major hospital attracts to its surroundings. The hospital will significantly reduce pressure on healthcare facilities in Kanifing and Banjul, strengthen the health workforce based in the West Coast Region, and establish Brikama as a regional medical centre as well as a commercial one.
The National Builders Party will build a world-class performance theatre in Brikama, giving the city's extraordinary musical and artistic culture a landmark home that inspires creativity, attracts tourism and investment, and declares that Brikama is a destination as well as a commercial centre.
Brikama has produced some of The Gambia's most celebrated musicians and cultural figures and carries a rich tradition as a centre of Gambian artistic life. It deserves a performance venue that reflects that heritage and gives it a stage worthy of it. The National Performance Theatre will host national concerts, talent showcases, cultural festivals, community programmes, and international touring performances, making Brikama a cultural destination that draws visitors who would not otherwise travel beyond the coast. The broader cultural and entertainment quarter surrounding the theatre will accommodate craft markets, cultural exhibition spaces, rehearsal facilities, and the small performance venues and restaurants that cluster around a major cultural institution. A national competitive programme will commission Gambian visual artists to create the public art installations that give the quarter a distinctive cultural identity rooted in Brikama's own story.
For Brikama Residents
A city centre market that is organised, covered, drained, and built to serve you properly. Roads that do not flood. A hospital that means you do not have to make the journey to Banjul when your family needs specialist care. A performance theatre where you can see world-class music and culture in your own city. Parks where you can take your children. A city that finally matches what your community has always deserved and never been given.
For Young Gambians
A commercial district with banks, offices, and businesses creates formal sector employment in Brikama rather than requiring young West Coast residents to commute to Banjul for every white-collar job. A performance theatre and cultural quarter create careers in music, performance, arts management, event production, and hospitality. A referral hospital creates medical and healthcare careers in the region. Brikama as a destination rather than a transit point means more businesses, more opportunities, and more reasons to build your life and your career right there.
For Every Family in the West Coast Region
A specialist hospital in Brikama means that a health emergency no longer automatically means an expensive, stressful journey to the capital. A transformed commercial centre means you shop, bank, and access services in a city that works rather than a market that has grown beyond its infrastructure. A performance theatre means culture and entertainment accessible to your family without the cost and time of travelling to Banjul. The National Builders Party will build Brikama as the second city it has always been and never been treated as.
A city centre that works. Roads that drain. A market that is clean and organised. A hospital that keeps West Coast families from having to travel to Banjul for the care they need. A theatre that gives the musicians and artists of this city a stage as extraordinary as their talent. Brikama is the second city. Under the National Builders Party, it will be treated as one. Not as an afterthought to the capital. Not as a large town that has grown beyond its infrastructure and been left to manage the consequences alone. As a city. Planned. Built. Invested in. And proud of what it has become. The National Builders Party builds everywhere. Brikama is proof of that commitment.
Brikama has waited long enough. The second most populated city in The Gambia deserves to be treated as the second city it is. Under the National Builders Party, it will be. A commercial heart. A regional hospital. A performance theatre. A city built with pride, purpose, and the National Standard of excellence.
Think Big. Build Big.
Read the plan. Join the movement.
Vote NBP