The Honorary Life President of the Gambia Football Federation Alhagie Ousman Basi Conateh (Fisco) has been selected by the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) to be the recipient to the Lifetime Achievement Award 2019.
In a communique sent to the President of the Gambia Football Federation Lamin Kaba Bajo, the chamber said it is “pleased to inform Football House that the GCCI Business Awards Council has selected Alhagie Ousman Basi Conateh to be the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award for 2019. The Council selected him based on his long term trajectory, community involvement, active engagement in various businesses in the Gambia leading to the recruitment and training of youths in sports amongst others”, the release stated.
Alhagie OB is the Honorary President of the GFF and had previously served as the President of the then The Gambia Football Association from 1993 until his voluntary retirement in 2001. He was born on 1st November 1937 in Banjul, The Gambia. He is a household name in The Gambia and around the sub-region. As a young and energetic smart boy who will later become an icon in Gambian football, Fisco attended St. Augustine’s High School and had a professional training in merchandise, marketing and entrepreneurship at the United Africa Company (UAC) in Lagos, Nigeria, where he was later made the manager of Kingsway Supermarket, one of the subsidiaries of UAC. He was also the Administrative Manager of The Gambia Fisheries Ltd and the sole owner and Chief Executive Officer of the National Partnership Enterprises (NPE) Sea Food Processing Company and sole owner and chairman of O.B. Trawlers Agency.
His unflinching efforts in raising football in The Gambia during his stint as its president was reciprocated when he was bestowed with the rare reverence of the honorary life presidency of the national football governing body at a 2001 Congress and remains so until today. He never played football though but has always been a keen admirer and in 1969, through one of his many philanthropic gestures, founded what is regarded as one of the most successful stories in Gambian football, the birth of Wallidan Football Club. It was in the summer of that year when some boys (now grandparents) sought assistance to form a football club and gave the birth of the Blues.
A baron of sports and football in particular, an athlete during his youth days and later a seasoned administrator par excellence, he was a devastating cricketer and an ex-national cycling champion. A true entrepreneur in all definitions, this living legend has done so much for the development of sports, particularly football in The Gambia and beyond and has impacted positively on the lives of many. The founding father of Gambia’s most successful football club, Wallidan, Fisco has won several awards in and outside of the country. In 1986, he was decorated with the prestigious honour of the Insignia of Member of the Republic of The Gambia (MRG); Officer of the National Order of the Republic of Cote d’ Ivoire in 1995; inducted into the Hall of Fame as National Cycling Champion, International Cricketer.
For the outstanding contribution to the development of youth and sport in 1999; he also won the Millennium Award for Excellence by The Gambia National Olympic Committee in 2000 and in 2001, he was honored with the Achievement Award for Excellence by The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Insignia of the National Order of the Republic of The Gambia (ORG). In 2007, he was made Commander of the National Order of the Republic of Cote d’ Ivoire.
The GCCI Business Awards will be held on the 6th December 2019 at the prestigious Coco Ocean Resort and Spa. The Lifetime Achievement award on one of the country’s elder and respected men of repute and philanthropy in Alh OB, will be the second for the Chamber to confer on the living legend.
