He said the Gambia government is currently negotiating with the secretariat and member countries for possible hosting of the Summit.
President Adama Barrow re-affirmed his hope of hosting the august Islamic summit to journalists recently at the State House as he wrapped up his Meet the people’s Tour undertaken with government project site visits.
The 2022 tour ended with inspections to assess progress of ongoing projects from the VVIP Lounge at Banjul International Airport, to the airport junction-widening of Bertil Harding highway, Sukuta traffic light, Janbanjelly highway, Nusrat Senior Secondary School, Tanjeh, Tujereng-Kunkujang Madiana road and other projects.
Also, President Barrow gave assurances of organising the OIC Summit, while reflecting on the most recent African Religious Ministers and Ullamas conference hosted by The Gambia organised by the World Muslim League which he said was connected to the OIC.
According President Barrow, the World Muslim League wanted to organise a regional conference from which they chose The Gambia to host the conference which also served as a test case for the Gambia to learn how to organise the proposed OIC Summit.
President Barrow noted that it is not the size of the country that matters, while giving assurance that The Gambia can host the summit, though a fixed day has not been scheduled.
“Our intention is to host the summit in 2023. We are negotiating with the secretariat and the member countries diplomatically to ensure that we have a date that we think we will be prepared enough to organise the OIC, because the members are also supporting us,” President Barrow concluded.
