By Momodou Jarju
Stakeholders from the basketball community—including administrators, coaches and players—last Saturday deliberated on the challenges they are grappling with and proposed solutions to them at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) organised by The Gambia Basketball Association (GBA). The event comes on the heels of recent successes the community accomplished at the international level with onlookers describing it as the dawn of a new era of basketball in the country.
Last September, The Gambia U-21 Basketball Team won the 2024 Amilcar Cabral U-21 tournament in Guinea Bissau where they defeated Senegal 62-48 in the final. Barely two months later, The Gambia U16 3×3 boys basketball team won silver at the third edition of the Dakar en Jeux Festival basketball competition. January this year, both The Gambia’s basketball U-16 boys and girls came out third in their respective categories in the FIBA Africa Zone II championship held in Dakar, Senegal.
These international achievements have put the country’s basketball in the limelight at home and Gambians heaped praises to the community for that. The sport ministry in fact presented a D400, 000 cheque to the male and female basketball teams who recently represented The Gambia in international tournaments held in Bissau, Dakar, and Thiès. The teams are yet to receive the money though. The GBA executive disclosed at the AGM that the money has been approved and they are waiting on the payment.
The AGM was the first since they came into office in 2022. During the periods under review, the secretary general of the association Aliou Nyan painstakingly took the members through their activity reports and financial statements before opening the floor for discussion.
Propositions and/or motions
Among the proposed motions was for the GBA to enter into a constitutional review to address some of the lacunas and or issues they felt needed changing. An example of the general assembly having to approve the resignation of an executive was cited as an example. This was approved. The GBA doesn’t have an office space where they can implement their day to day affairs. This matter was raised as part of plans that the current executive ought to work towards which was noted.
The total budget GBA estimated for 2025 was at little over four million dalasis. One of the participants proposed the increment of the budget earmarked for the 2025 season, saying it isn’t enough especially on the training budget line which indicated D120, 000. The participant suggested it be increased to D500, 000 reasoning that the budding executive needs to continue building the capacity of its members and/or actors in basketball to raise the level of the game in line with its recent growth. Scores of members agreed to this proposition.
Stakeholders also noted the few or no media coverage the game is receiving in the country which is impeding its visibility. This, they pointed out, can be improved.
Executive Changes
The restructuring of the executive was also done at the AGM as both the president and treasurer of the association resigned from their positions. The GBA constitution gives the general assembly or body the power to approve their decision which was accepted.
The first vice president was elected to the presidency, likewise the second vice president moving to the first. The vacant positions—treasurer and second vice president—were occupied upon the general assembly’s approval.
The executive now constitutes the following: Ndongo Camara – President, Mullie Jammeh – 1st Vice President, Baboucarr Gillen – 2nd Vice President, Aliou Nyan – Secretary General, Yassin Jaal Mboob – Assistant Secretary General, Reuben Sol Nying – Public Relations Officer, and Musa Jarra – Treasurer.
The outgoing president of the association Gheran F. Senghore apportioned the reason for his resignation to lack of time to executive his functions properly which he asserted wouldn’t be fair to the basketball community.
Senghore noted the growth of basketball in the country within a short span of their tenure while thanking his former-led executive whose dedication he opined will help improve the game. The basketball enthusiast regretted not accomplishing his ambition, describing it as a failure.
“I had one ambition that I really wanted, and I was unable to achieve that, and that is to have a national team for basketball. I didn’t think that it should come in the next two or three years. I felt that the talent that we have here, and I insisted that locally, it must start. I was confident that the talent that we had on the ground was strong enough to start a national team for this country. I felt that we were strong enough to go to the next level,” he said and thereafter pledged to donate D30, 000 to the association.
