By Yunus S Saliu
Ministry of Tourism and Culture has Friday, 10th June 2022, inaugurated a new Board of Directors for the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC), the inauguration ceremony was held at the Ministry of Tourism and Culture premises in Banjul and presided over by the Minister of Tourism and Culture.
The newly inaugurated members included Honourable Fafa E Mbai – Chairman, Mrs Nahla Tambadou; Alhaji Momodou Joof; Foday Baldeh, Modou Joof, Modou Jagne and Adama Jimba Jobe.
Hassoum Ceesay, Director General of NCAC thanked them for accepting to be part of the board of directors of the NCAC for joining and continuing their services to the board for the next three years.
Addressing the newly inaugurated governing board members, Honourable Hamat NK Bah, Minister of Tourism and Culture welcomed and congratulated the board members while expressed that His Excellency President Adama Barrow has through him bestowed on them “this great duty of oversight of a very important sector – arts and cultural heritage.”
He echoed to them that arts and cultural heritage is one sector that has the greatest impact on each and every citizen of Republic of The Gambia which “each and every citizen has a cultural energy.”
Likewise, he added, each Gambian is a user of arts and or a creator of arts, therefore, the cultural and artistic sector concerns all and sundry has a direct impact on everyone.
Minister Bah reflected their mind back saying “since we assumed power in 2017, we have done the singular effort to promote the sector through the institutional strengthening of the National Centre for arts and Culture, through increment in budget support to the NCAC, and the disbursement of development budget to enable NCAC implements its primordial mandate of conservation and interpretation of site.”
He added on that, “Since 2017, various heritage sites have been refurbished and value added to protect them for prosperity. I will give you two recent examples: the refurbishment of the Kerr Batch Stone Circle site recently completed and the rehabilitation works that has started at Mungo Park Memorial in Karantaba Sami,” which will open in the coming weeks.
He lauded the skillful leadership of the outgoing board under the skillful leadership of chairman Mr Oreme Joiner saying he has put the NCAC on a much better financial and administrative state “the staff strength has been augmented and capacitised to all levels including many staff with post graduate degrees.”
The Minister challenged the new board members to live up to expectation while he thanked them for accepting this onerous task.
In acceptance, Honorable Fafa E Mbai who has replaced the outgoing chairman of the board on behalf of the fellow board members, expressed gratitude to His Excellency President of the Republic of The Gambia through the Minister of Tourism and Culture, Honourable Hamat NK Bah, for the honour and confidence of appointing them as members of the governing board to the National Centre for Arts and Culture.
“Our cultural heritage defines here as the body of tradition displays in arts distinct, and picturise lingua and folklore with the associated metaphysical expression handed down by the ancestors is for us to value appreciate promote celebrate and preserve. If we lose it we are left with nothing,” the new board chairman divulged.
Therefore, he said, “We take our appointment as a call for patriotic action to maintain the vibrant and dimension in the artistic and cultural expression under your engage leadership, vision energy with your indispensable advice support and technical cooperation of the dynamic management team of the director general of the centre.”
NahlaTambadou assured of their commitment to serving to the best of their ability and to ensure that the NCAC would be an institution that all will be proud of and to compete with other countries to claim their rightful position in the cultural tourism sector
