President Yahya Jammeh has made the following Cabinet appointments: Momodou S. Foon as Minister of Finance, Edward Gomez as Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, and Dr. Njogu Lamin Bah, as Minister of Trade and Employment.
According to reports monitored over GRTS, President Jammeh relieved the following of their cabinet appointment, with effect from Friday 19th March 2010:
Abdou Colley, Minister of Finance, Marie Saine-Fridaus, Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, and Baboucarr H.M. Jallow, Minister of Trade and Employment who served for only 41 days in the cabinet.
Minister Foon
The new Finance Minister, Momodou S. Foon was, until his ministerial appointment, the Permanent Secretary at the new Ministry of Economic Planning and Industry.
Mr. Foon returned home recently from Nigeria where he was, from February to May 2009, the acting Director General of the West African Institute for Financial and Economic Management (WAIFEM) which is based in Lagos, Nigeria.
In that capacity, he also acted as Secretary to the Board of Governors of WAIFEM, and supervised, coordinated and directed four programme management departmental directors.
He prepared the institute's medium-term strategic plan (2009-2013), coordinated an annual programme of twenty-eight activities executed in five countries, with funding from member central banks and international donors, and managed the information products, including a website as outreached to stakeholders.
As the acting head of WAIFEM, he established appropriate relationships with all major donors of the institute, including the African Capacity Building Foundation and European governments.
Previously, he served as Director of the Macro-economic Management Department at WAIFEM, and managed the largest programme department. He offered most lectures on macroeconomics and was responsible for the design and execution of the macro-management programmes.
Mr. Foon coordinated the drafting of the information products, and the annual collaborative training programmes between WAIFEM and IMF institute, the Statistics Department and Centre for Central Banking Studies of the Bank of England, World Trade Organisation and Joint Africa Institute.
While the strategic framework and project document on the Capacity Building Programme Phase I (2001-2005), which facilitated donor funding of WAIFEM, was drafted by four external consultants, the current Phase II (2006 - 2009) was drafted by Mr. Foon. He has also completed the drafting of WAIFEM III (2009-2013).
He holds a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in Monetary Economics from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. He got his first degree in Economics and Political Science from Haverford College in Haverford, Pennsylvania, U.S.A. In college, he won the Scholarship Improvement Prize and Stephen H. Miller Award. He was Vice-Captain of the cricket team.
Mr. Foon received training on Resource-Based Management (RBM) from Development Finance International in the UK. He holds certificates from short-term courses on macroeconomics and central banking attended at the Bank of England, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Swiss National Bank, National Bank of Pakistan, and the IMF Institute, as well as on project appraisal and fiscal management from Bradford University and Harvard University, respectively.
Prior to joining WAIFEM in July 1999, he was Special Assistant to the Governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia and responsible for staff in the Governor's office. He commenced his career with the bank in 1979, and rose through the ranks to become Principal Economist and Head of the Money and Credit Division in the Economic Research Department. He was the desk officer for relations with the IMF and World Bank on The Gambia's highly successful economic recovery programme in the late eighties and nineties.
He was Senior Policy Adviser to the Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs of The Gambia from 1993 to 1995. At the Ministry, he coordinated the preparation of the national budget estimates and budget speech, among other speeches by the Minister. He represented The Gambia and the Central Bank at various international fora, including international donor conferences and meetings, and with the Bretton Woods' institutions and African Development Bank. He coordinated and accompanied the Minister to several bilateral meetings, including those held with the IMF Managing Director (Mr. Camdessus) and executives of the World Bank.
He taught advanced macroeconomics as a Lecturer's Assistant in the Economics Department of the University of The Gambia and served as a consultant to the UNDP on assignments relating to macro-economic management.
Mr. Foon has published parts of a book and numerous lecture and seminar papers on macro-economics, debt, financial sector and statistics management, as well as resource management. His area of research interest is the relative efficacy of fiscal and monetary policies, financial programming models, and change management.
Dr. Njogu Bah
Njogu Bah served as Permanent Secretary at the Office of the President, Secretary to the Cabinet. He served as Secretary-General and Head of the Civil Service from 8th January to 17th March 2010, when he was appointed as Deputy Minister of Works, Construction and Infrastructure, a post where he served for only two days.
Edu Gomez
Edu Gomez, a private legal practitioner, served in the Gambia Police Force for 20 years, before leaving the service in 1984.
After joining the Gambia Police Force in the 1950s, he underwent a six-month cadet officer-training course, at Mons Officers Cadet School in Aldershot, United Kingdom, in 1966.
He returned to The Gambia and served for a while, before returning to the UK for a Captain's course at School of Infantry Warminister in Whiltshaire.
Edu Gomez returned home and after completing a police course, he was appointed Commanding Officer for Western Division.
Lawyer Edu Gomez had also served as ADC to the former President, Sir Dawda Jawara.
Prior to that, before The Gambia became a Republic, he also served as ADC to Sir Farimang Singhateh, then Governor General of The Gambia.
In 1973, Mr. Gomez went to Nigeria to read Law at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, and later to the UK for further reading in Law, where he was called to the Bar. He is a member of Grays Inn, London.
Upon returning to The Gambia, he served in the police force, before leaving the service in 1984.
From 4th March 2010, he was appointed Police Adviser, a position he held until his latest appointment as Attorney General and Minister of Justice.
Edward Gomez is the thirteenth (13th) person to hold the cabinet post of Attorney-General and Minister of Justice from July 1994.
Meanwhile, this paper has reliably learnt that Jainaba Bah-Sambou has been appointed as Solicitor General.
