The NYC had recently supported 26 young entrepreneurs to take part in the Youth Agribusiness, Leadership and Entrepreneurship Summit on Innovation (YALESI) to be held in Dakar at King Fahd Palace Hotel, from 29-31 March 2016.
According to the officials, YALESI provides a platform bringing together more than 200 young people from 110 countries globally.
NEDI and the National Youth Council supported the participation of 26 Gambian delegates to go through the application process online, provided internet access and provide the cost for accommodation, feeding and transportation to and from Dakar.
This is the first time in the history of The Gambia for such a number of youth entrepreneurs to represent the country at such an international conference.
Prior to their departure, the National Youth Council and the National Enterprise Development Initiative (NEDI) held a meeting at the NYC office on 25 March 2016, to brief the delegates with regards to the summit arrangements and state of preparedness by both the national and international facilitators.
The meeting began with an introduction by the NYC communication and advocacy officer, Baboucarr Kebbeh, who doubles as the coordinator.
Kebbeh dilated on the processes taken from the inception of the summit application by young people to the final level, wherein 26 Gambian names where confirmed by the summit steering committee to attend the summit in Dakar.
Mr Kebbeh considers this a success and extraordinary, hence The Gambia for the first time has such a number of delegates to the summit, and being the country with the highest summit delegates.
He further said that the goal of the summit is to build the capacity of youths to fight hunger, create jobs and develop sustainable communities.
The event was organized by the Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN) in collaboration with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the government of Senegal and the Arizona State project.
The delegates are set to depart for Dakar on Monday 28th March 2016.
He further urged the selected delegates to recognise this as a relevant opportunity, and commit themselves throughout the duration of the conferences with concerted efforts from all participants.
This he believes shall yield a significant development platform for the Gambian youths.
Momodou Edrissa Njie, who is a national coordinator for GYIN Gambia and also member of the summit steering committee, congratulated the selected delegates and discussed the level of work by the international office, as well as the strategies put in place regarding the issues of the Gambian delegates.
He also asked the delegates to be attentive and participate in all the levels of the summit as stipulated in the programme guide, thereby ensuring a very successful feedback from the supporters and the investors who shall be available to support paramount business plans.
The programme officer of NEDI, Mustapha Badjie, shared similar sentiments with his colleagues, and intensively dilated on the design preparations by both parties.
Badjie thanked the Gambia Commercial Agricultural Value Chain Management Project (GCAV) for supporting the Gambian delegates in connection with the summit, and elaborated on the required participation expected from the delegates.
Finally, the selected delegates seized the opportunity to thank those involved in the facilitation processes regarding the summit, and explained their preparations with comments and declarations of commitment.
