A 22,688-square-meter plot of state land, originally allocated to a business owned by a financier of President Adama Barrow’s party for a tomato paste factory, has been partially diverted into a private real estate project without legal approval. GACH Global, owned by mineral sand miner Abubakary Jawara, is currently constructing office spaces, warehouses, and shops for commercial rent—a move that authorities say violates the original lease.
The new apartments and warehouses are being marketed for rent by Majum Estate Agency, a private business owned by President Barrow. The Agency has still not been placed under a trustee, in apparent violation of Section 68(5) of the 1997 Constitution.
For nearly a decade, GACH enjoyed an Export Processing Zone License (EPZL), which granted the company duty and tax exemptions on the condition that they export 80% of their output. However, the company has failed to meet this requirement since its inception, citing ‘red tape’ in Senegal as the reason for selling exclusively to the domestic market.
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On October 14, 2008, a land measuring 22,688 square metres and located near the Banjulinding women’s gardens—only a few minutes’ drive from the Banjul International Airport—was allocated to Gach Global Trading Company Limited which changed name in October 2025 to GACH Manufacturing and Processing Company Limited, according to company registry office at the Ministry of Justice. Information at the company registry shows the land was allocated only seven days after the company was registered. Though the company’s registration details were re-entered in May 2014, a deeper search shows it was registered on October 7, 2008, and the allocation letter was issued on October 14, 2008.
Though the company was asked to develop the property within two years or the “allocation will lapse” if it does not, its processing factory was finished and launched in 2018, ten years after receiving the letter of allocation. The allocation letter to the company says it will only be issued a lease after “substantial completion of the proposed project”, the lease was in fact issued only 16 days later, when work did not even begin on the proposed site. GACH said the delay was caused by a number of adjustments made to the initial designs of the factory.
The letter conveying the allocation conditioned that the land should be used for a “tomato paste factory”. Despite the agro-industrial mandate, the company appears to divert nearly one-fifth of the total land area to erect commercial buildings. According to billboards on-site, these structures are destined for office spaces, warehouses, stores and apartments—a departure from the land’s original intended use. Though “change of land use” which is approved by the lands minister can allow such deviation from the condition of initial allocation, sources at the Physical Planning Department have told The Republic the company does not have any such approval. GACH said the Department grants them two development permits for building of administrative and manufacturing blocks. Legally though, building permits are not substitutes for re-use permits.
“The Lease conditions do allow limited commercial activities but not full blown as he is doing now. There can be limited institutional activities too. They can have shops that sell their products and stuff related to their activities, but not rent out spaces for other commercial purposes,” said a source at Physical Planning. Satellite imagery shows serious work started at the site in March 2024.
GACH told The Republic the office spaces being built are all connected to the original “planned use” of the land “which is for uses connected to production, manufacturing and processing with raw materials derived from agricultural origins”.
“At the front we have an administrative block. This will house close to 32 outlet stores or showrooms where products manufactured in the hub, or products connected to the manufacturing process can be displayed and purchased by wholesalers or consumers,” the company said in a response to The Republic which it subsequently modified for publication on social media and several online news sites. “We also have at the top office space which could be used as admin offices for the manufacturers and for other offices connected to the manufacturing process.”
President’s business to collect the rent
Abubakary Jawara, the owner of the tomato packaging factory which is allocated the land for agro-industry purposes, is an associate of the Gambian leader and one of the financiers of his political activities. In August 2017, Jawara, who also holds a license to mine mineral sand in the country’s coastal communities along the Kombo South, was appointed by the President as an Honorary Consul General of The Gambia to Guangzhou, China. According to his appointment letter dated August 23, 2017, his task was to promote and protect the country’s interest in China.
As the construction completes on the building, a property management and rent collection sole proprietorship, Majum Estate Agency, mounted an advertisement seeking people with interests in “warehouses, office spaces , stores and apartments” which it clearly states are “for rent”.
The sole proprietorship is owned by the President which, according to the business registry, is still not put under a trustee in violation of Section 68(5) of the 1997 Constitution. Our questions sent to the Chief of Staff in the last days of December remained unanswered until the time of this publication.
Though GACH’s planned “manufacturing hub” that the company claims the showrooms are being built for is not finished, the stores are already in the market. In December, The Republic called a number on the advertisement board seeking for an office space for financial consultancy—business unconnected to any agro-industry or manufacturing hub claimed to be the reason for the construction by GACH. The receiver on the other end of the phone who claimed to be a staff of Majum told The Republic that work was still ongoing and that we should save his dial and call back later when it is completed.
Meanwhile, sources at the Ministry of Lands have informed The Republic that there is a growing trend of applicants using ‘change of use’ permit submissions to bypass the country’s highly competitive land allocation process. After the applicants get an allocation for industrial use which is often easy, they apply for ‘change of use’, and in some cases even where refused, then pivot to high-value commercial real estate once the land is secured.
“Cheating export privileges”
The Gach ‘tomato factory project’ was launched in August 2018, almost ten years after the company was allocated land and asked to develop it within two years upon receipt of a lease. In May 2016, a little over two years before it was launched, the company was granted a ten-year Export Processing Zone License (EPZL) for “processing and production of tomatoes into tomato paste”. A thousand dollar-priced EPZL is a government incentive meant to, among other things, encourage exports thereby reducing the country’s trade deficit. The company and businesses granted the licence are exempted from paying import duty on a list of products approved by the authorities and taxes.
“The Licence will entitle your project to a number of benefits as provided for in the GIEPA Act 2015 including exemptions on import duty and import Value Added Tax (VAT) on the approved list of capital items, corporate/turnover tax and municipal taxes for duration of the License,” stated a letter issued to Gach Global.
“Besides the above exemptions, your company is entitled to depreciation allowances on qualifying capital equipment for the duration of the Licence.” The Committee that approves issuance of an EPZL comprises the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Trade who is the chair, the permanent secretary at the Ministry of Finance, the board chair of GiEPA, and the Commissioner General of the Gambia Revenue Authority.
Though local newspaper reports claim the company has been processing locally grown tomatoes into a tomato paste, findings by The Republic shows that the company imports aseptic tomato paste from a Chinese manufacturer called Khan Foods Company Limited. It imports barrels of raw tomato paste and powder which is then packaged for sale in the local market.
“We have in the past made tomato paste with locally made tomatoes. Our efforts to use local tomatoes failed woefully,” said GACH.
“We were unable to get farmers to plant the strain of tomatoes that is needed for Tomato Concentrate during our trials in 2019. This is why we have resorted to using imported tomato concentrate as it is readily available and until such time as local production catches up.”
The customs import records seen by The Republic show that the Company imported several tons of raw tomato paste, aseptic tomato in drums, tomato juice powder, tomato paste buckets, tomato potassium sorbate and empty tomato paste sachets. It uses machines such as a pouch packaging machine, one of which it brought in 2023, according to GACH’s import records obtained by The Republic.
On November 11, The Republic filed an Access to Information (ATI) request with Gambia Import and Export Promotion Agency (GiEPA) and a subsequent request for a review of the reversal of decision after it failed to honour the initial request without explanation, in total violation of the ATI Act 2021. The Republic requested for information on the EPZL licence granted to GACH including copies of the company’s annual financial statements and annual activity reports as they are required by law to submit them to GiEPA.
On December 19, 38 days after The Republic’s ATI request and a subsequent request for review of refusal, GiEPA replied confirming Gach was issued a EPZL, which it claimed was still active. The Agency declined to provide the company’s financial statements and audited accounts on the justification that those fell under categories exempted under the ATI.
Despite stating that GACH’s EPZL was active, and insinuating compliance—about 14 days before replying to The Republic’s ATI request—the Agency wrote to Gambia Revenue Authority (GRA) suspending Gach’s EPZL. The licence, which expires in April 2026, was on the list of fifty-two (52) EPZLs and Special Investment Certificates that were revoked by GiEPA in the first week of December. This information and list of companies were shared with the Gambia Revenue Authority for action on December 5, 2025, which the tax authorities shared with all their branches on December 15 for action.
The GRA does not only lose revenue unnecessarily when companies issue SIC and EPZL are not fulfilling their conditions, to the greater losses of the state, the Authority also holds vital data that can confirm whether or not a company is fulfilling its condition under the EPZL. Yet the Authority does not play any active role in the monitoring and cancellation of the SIC or EPZLs, nor can it advise GiEPA on the subject. Though part of a committee responsible for issuance of SIC and EPZLs, the Authority’s spokesperson Ousman Bah told The Republic that “the responsibility of monitoring and or cancellation of these certificates lies with GIEPA”.
Meanwhile, sources within the export promotion agency said GACH was not submitting necessary information required by law such as its audited accounts, financial statements and it is also not exporting anything. GACH told The Republic it has been fulfilling its “obligations under the GIEPA Act in terms of filing to the extent that there have been no exports recorded”. Companies that are issued an EPZL, according to section 70 of the GIEPA Act 2015, are required to export eight (80) percent of their output.
And where they are selling within the country, sections 67 and 68 require the company to get prior approval from the Agency. The customs records reviewed by The Republic show that GACH has not been exporting tomato paste or tomato powder, not at least from October 2022 to February 2025.
When contacted for clarifications, GACH admitted it has not been exporting its products, saying its efforts to penetrate the Senegalese market remain futile. “The principal export market for our products is Senegal. But since our first attempts to export to Senegal in 2019, we have been met with red tape, and unreasonable barriers from the Senegalese authorities as is the case with many other exports from The Gambia to Senegal,” said the company. “For now, we have taken the option of focusing on the domestic market until such a time as these export restrictions are resolved.”
