Nayconf 2006 Preparations Kick Off
Thursday 26th October 2006

Preparations for 2006 National Youth Conference and Festival [Nayconf] to be held in Brikama, Western Region officially kicked off on Thursday 19th October 2006 with the inauguration of the National Organising Committee [NOC] in a ceremony held at the Board Room of Independence Stadium.

The committee, which comprise of prominent youth and sports personalities is headed by the Permanent Secretary at the Department of State for Youth, Sports and Religious Affairs Alhagie Tamsir Manga.

Speaking at the ceremony Mr. Manga said that Nayconf is a bi-annual event, which meant to bring 1500 young people from all over the country to share their experience and dilate on issues that affect their lives.

He added that the first edition of Nayconf was held in 1999 in the Kanifing Municipality followed by Upper River Division [Basse] in 2001 and the last event was held in Banjul in 2004 and all events were supported by the Gambia Government which is a clear demonstration of its commitment of empowering young people.

Pa Malick Ceesay, the Executive Secretary of the National Youth Council [NYC] said that the youths form the bulk of Gambian population and as such their involvement and participation is crucial towards the attainment of our national development goals particularly the vision 2020, the PRSP and the MDGs.

He added that this year’s Nayconf would have five main components namely: the Conference, the Cultural shows, performance and Carnival, Award Ceremony, Sports Activities and the Beauty contest.

He revealed that the estimated budget for theNayconf 2006 is D4, 371,900 [Four Million three Hundred and Seventy One thousand and Nine hundred Dalasis] which would help in implementing post Nayconf activities as well, which are crucial to the success of the programme.

To prepare effectively the Nayconf sub –committees were formed to start working immediately.

They are Accommodation, Feeding, Finance, Conference, Transport and Protocol, Culture and Award, Sports, Security and Safety and finally Marketing, Fundraising and Publicity Committees.

The next meeting of the National Organising Committee is scheduled for today Thursday October 26th, 2006.