The National Roads Authority recently concluded a benchmarking study tour of Rwanda and Namibia, as part of the organizations’ effort to reorganize and strengthen the Authority to provide good and safe roads for the Gambia.
The delegation comprised of the NRA Managing Director accompanied by senior officials of the NRA; NRA Board Chair and Chair of the HR Select Committee; senior government officials from the Ministry of Transport, Works and Infrastructure, and Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs; representatives from the National Assembly and the President of The Gambia Transport Union.
The trip was facilitated and attended by consultancy firm SMD Policy Management Group, the consultant commissioned to study the institutional and organisational restructuring of the NRA.
Namibia and Rwanda were chosen because of the phenomenal progress they have made to transform their organisations into some of the best-performing Road Authorities in Africa.
The World Economic Forum ranked Namibia as the No. 1 African country for the quality of its road network. It is also ranked 23rd in the World, ahead of most countries in the developed world.
Rwanda comes a close 3rd in Africa and 31st in the world rankings [Source – World Economic Forum competitive report: Road Quality Index 2016-2017]
The study tour seeks to strengthen bilateral relations by exchanging ideas and learn from their successes, as well as challenges, in our pursuit to restructure the NRA to build better roads for our people.
During our visit, we were impressed with some of the measures, procedures, and processes that they have in place to support the funding, planning, design, implementation and maintenance of their roads and transportation network.
We noted some similarities in terms of the policies that we already have in place. However, the key differentiator is the actual implementation of these policies.
Lessons learnt will be relevant to the restructuring of the NRA. Some of the key ones include the establishment of a structural framework for the institution; adopting e-procurement systems; anti-corruption policy; performance contracts; performance management; road maintenance policy; development of Transport Masterplans for future planning of road networks; knowledge transfer and capacity building, and strategic policy framework formulation.
Discussions are underway to enter a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with both countries to establish the intent to work together for the mutual benefit of our organisations.
The sessions with both organisations were engaging and thought-provoking. We concluded that the following five major reasons are the contributing factors to the success and rapid growth/development of both countries:-
Leadership;
Discipline;
Trust and hope;
Security; and
Love of country.
The NRA management is confident that if we succeed in positioning the NRA along this trajectory, we will also soon be included in the World Economic Forum ranking for quality roads in Africa. Keep following us and watch the space.