This year’s event, the first to be held in The Gambia, will run from October 15 to 21, 2026 and attract over 1000 delegates from across Africa and beyond.
Centred around the theme “Skills development changes lives,” the landmark regional event unites delegates, culinary professionals and food enthusiasts from 35 countries.
The hosting rights trace back to a Jollof rice competition held during AKWAABA in 2019, shortly before COVID-19, which was won by a Gambian.
At a press briefing on Tuesday to update the public on preparations, Momodou Singhateh, Director General of the Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute (GTHI), described the event as a landmark with the potential to promote the country’s image to another level in terms of tourism.
“You must be aware that one of the recent strategies of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture is to penetrate the sub-regional market in terms of visitor arrivals,” he said.
The initiative, he added, was among the lessons learned during COVID-19 as part of broader efforts to promote regional tourism.
“The Gambia as a tourist destination, a very popular tourist destination for that matter in the sub-region, has realized that for too long, we have been relying on source markets that are far from The Gambia,” Singhateh observed.
Blessed with abundant resources coupled with rich dishes, he said, the country has all it takes to attract visitors from the sub-regional market.
“WAFFEST has the potential to bridge this gap, to attract a lot of people coming here. But in addition to that, and most importantly, WAFFEST has the potential to promote gastronomy tourism. It also has the potential to revitalize our local gastronomy.”
He disclosed that GTHI, in collaboration with the International Trade Centre (ITC), recently conducted research on local gastronomy, revealing that many local dishes are near extinction.
“That is to say that for the younger generation, they didn't know what were the recipes that our grandparents were using because of
modernization, internationalization, as well as so-called civilization,” he said.
“We want to encourage people to embrace some of these delicacies that are on the brink of extinction. Some of these are healthy foods that our grandparents and our forefathers were living on.”
He said visitors to the festival will see menus and recipes that had nearly gone into extinction.
“Bringing WAFFEST to The Gambia is in line with some of those efforts. We have not been into this segment of tourism for a long time. The coming of WAFFEST will help us to have a reflection of what we are, who we are, what are we eating, and what should we be eating.”
“If The Gambia is hosting the eighth edition of WAFFEST, it means WAFFEST is coming home,” he added.
National Coordinator and Country Representative for the ITC, Yusupha Keita, expressed delight to be associated with the event, revealing that ITC is implementing the European Union Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) on tourism and creative industries.
Under the project, he said, they are tasked to work on product development to support tourism diversification.
“As a result of that, we looked at different product lines that we can work with partners to enhance and improve to promote tourism in The Gambia. And one of those product lines is Tourism, Meetings, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) including festivals. And that's where WAFFEST comes in and that's why, through the project, we are supporting WAFFEST,” he said.
He disclosed that they are targeting over 1,000 delegates from across West Africa.
“That's enormous and that's a huge milestone for the tourism sector, it's a huge milestone for The Gambia as well,” Keita said.
He said the line-up of event includes master classes where participants will exchange skills and new talents.
“Training our young people, showing them new skills, showing them new techniques, that is going to be a huge improvement in our hospitality sector.”
So really, this he added, is a huge event, and they count on every person, every Gambian, every institution, every private sector to come on board.
Chairperson of WAFFEST 2026, Mrs Ellen T. Johnson, dwelled on level of preparation at hand, further thanking all stakeholders and partners for their support.
She also gave hints on how institutions and partners can take part in the event.
