Opinion / Interviews
Kanifing Mayor builds record of excellence
24 Oct 2022 at 15:02hrs | Views
Youthful Mayor of Kanifing in The Gambia his lordship, Talib Ahmed Bensouda, born in 1986, is the youngest Mayor in the history of the Gambia.
In 2018, at just 31 years old, Talib blazed to a stunning victory in the Kanifing mayoral elections.
His unique campaign style frowned upon partisan attacks and focused squarely on bringing development to the municipality.
The campaign included an ambitious manifesto to transform the municipality by providing services to its residents and creating employment for youths.
The University of Toronto Economics graduate came to office with a tall order and he has not disappointed. In less than two years, Mayor Bensouda has made an impact with many achievements including deploying 500 street bins to the municipality, employing 200 personnel in new projects, boosting the image of the Council through various street cleaning exercises and flood prevention clean-ups, leading a staff restructuring exercise and improving the financial health of the Council, enhancing market infrastructure and improving sanitation, championing a D100 million small business loan fund for women and D20 million loan fund for the youth
The Mayor officially opened the first phase of the newly completed Latrikunda Sabiji Market Expansion With 100 new shops constructed in addition to the original 72 shops in the Building opened in 2019 making it 172 shops.
The Latrikunda Sabiji Market Expansion is a new model of market construction via a novel financial concept through joint funding with vendors. This concept will further seek to replace and modernize all 350 original vendors spaces in the market which are disorganized and sprawling with a standard organised system of construction and planning using standard materials.
This innovative system once fully tested in Latrikunda Sabiji will be used to standardize and replace all old vendor spaces in all of KMCs 19 markets.
In addition to the opening unofficially handed over 100 bins to KM's Regional tailoring association for their member businesses.
Africa needs to emulate this youthful leadership that is focused on results and building a record of excellence.
In 2018, at just 31 years old, Talib blazed to a stunning victory in the Kanifing mayoral elections.
His unique campaign style frowned upon partisan attacks and focused squarely on bringing development to the municipality.
The campaign included an ambitious manifesto to transform the municipality by providing services to its residents and creating employment for youths.
The University of Toronto Economics graduate came to office with a tall order and he has not disappointed. In less than two years, Mayor Bensouda has made an impact with many achievements including deploying 500 street bins to the municipality, employing 200 personnel in new projects, boosting the image of the Council through various street cleaning exercises and flood prevention clean-ups, leading a staff restructuring exercise and improving the financial health of the Council, enhancing market infrastructure and improving sanitation, championing a D100 million small business loan fund for women and D20 million loan fund for the youth
The Latrikunda Sabiji Market Expansion is a new model of market construction via a novel financial concept through joint funding with vendors. This concept will further seek to replace and modernize all 350 original vendors spaces in the market which are disorganized and sprawling with a standard organised system of construction and planning using standard materials.
This innovative system once fully tested in Latrikunda Sabiji will be used to standardize and replace all old vendor spaces in all of KMCs 19 markets.
In addition to the opening unofficially handed over 100 bins to KM's Regional tailoring association for their member businesses.
Africa needs to emulate this youthful leadership that is focused on results and building a record of excellence.
Source - Mandla Ndlovu
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