By Makutu Manneh
In a press conference held at the Sir Dawda Kairaba Conference Centre yesterday May 7th, Yankuba Dibba CEO of OIC Gambia Secretariat said The Gambia has held a “very successful” OIC summit of Heads of State and Government.
“We have a very good outcome, we have a very successful summit in all counts both logistical and management,” the CEO said.
Mr. Dibba continued to say summits are not defined by the beautiful infrastructures, but by the quality of Declarations and communiqués that arise from it.
He added that The Gambia came up with the best outcomes any summit can ever expect rating the 15th OIC summit held in Banjul as one of the best the OIC has ever organised.
When questioned about the secretariat being audited, Dibba responded that they are ready to be audited even ‘tomorrow morning’, adding that they have prepared their processes and have full proofs that are in line with government regulations.
He went on to add that since their founding, they have been audited annually or at least biennially.
“With such inflow of funds especially from the government because the government entirely funded the event planning aspect of the summit, the money was not provided by any donor, over 5 hundred million has been pumped into this event and it all went back into the economy because Gambian companies were contracted,” he said.
Nfally Fadera, Head of Brand and Communication at OIC Gambia Secretariat said they have a “very big vision” for the OIC as the new chair and to fully tap into that potential it requires a national effort.
“We are going to mobilise the fullest capacity of this country including public and private,” he said.
“We can even have a national conference on how we can fully tap into this potential because the OIC comes with a lot of possibilities such as investment, science and technology, business, trade cooperation.”
On the other hand, Dr. Ismaila Ceesay, Minister Of Information said there is no concrete decision taken by the government about the vehicles bought for the OIC summit but said he believes in the subsequent days, they will meet as a board to decide what will happen.
