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.
