Mr. Bakary Kebba Jammeh, first Vice President of The Gambia Football Federation (GFF), has been appointed as the Chef de Mission (CDM) for Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, the Gambia’s Olympic Committee announced yesterday.
The event will take place from July 28, to August 8, in the west-Midlands city of the United Kingdom. The NOC added that the country has started preparations ahead of the Games and has already identified judo, athletics, beach volleyball, 3X3 basketball and para power lifting as the sports that would be representing The Gambia at the XXII Commonwealth Games.
The role of Mr. Jammeh as a CDM, as is the case of every national team at a competing Games, his ultimate responsibility would be to ensure the welfare of the Gambian delegation, especially the athletes by doing everything within the confines of the regulations to help maximise the performance of our athletes when they compete at the Games.
Mr. Jammeh, the son of the late Seyfo and Parliamentary Secretary, Kebba Tamba Jammeh, holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Lincolnshire & Humberside, UK in addition to many professional accounting qualifications. He is a finance and marketing expert, an industry leader as well as a public administrator. He is no stranger to sports administration having had more than three decades of practical experience in the industry, majorly as one of the co-owners and a Vice President of Gambian giants Real de Banjul.
He started his career in sports management in 1988, first as Secretary General of Real. He also served as Chairman of Gambia Football Association Marketing Committee twice; first in 2005 when he was also chairman of the CAF U-17 Championship Marketing Committee and a member of the LOC in 2005.
Baks, as he is fondly called, also served as vice chairman of The Gambia for Gold Football Fundraising Committee, member of CAF Audit Committee 2015 – 2018, and currently member of CAF Youth Committee (U17, U20& U23). He is the former Managing Director of Elton Oil Gambia Ltd, ex-Head of Investment Department Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation, and former Head of Accounts and Local Administration, MRC Gambia.
In 2018, following the change of government, he was appointed as the interim Mayor of Kanifing for four months and has been credited for spearheading the transition of changing the Municipality into a more professionalised workforce by laying the foundations for the transformations done by the Council in the past couple of years.
A father of three, Bakary, is a former Chairman of the Board of Directors of The Gambia Tourism Board, is currently the Chairman & CEO of KaSan Conservation Company, and Vice Chairman of The Gambia National Petroleum Company (GNPC) Board.