I am a highly qualified international development practitioner with over 30 years of experience in research, program design, administration, management and leadership. I served as Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources in the Gambia between 1994 and 1999 and as Executive Secretary of the Permanent Inter-States Committee to Control Drought in the Sahel (CILSS) between 2001 and 2007. I joined the UN in 2007 and my first assignment was to serve as FAO Representative in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Shortly after, I was transferred to the FAO regional headquarters in Ghana as the Representative to Ghana, the Coordinator of the sub-regional office for West Africa and at the same time as Deputy Regional Representative for Africa until 31st December 2012 when I opted to retire from FAO and public service to become an economic operator within the private sector.
With both domestic and international experience, I managed national and regional programmes dealing with food security, the environment and sustainable development. In the Congo, I gained experience in Humanitarian Coordination having had opportunity to substitute, on several occasions, for the DSRSG\RC\HC of MONUC. I worked with regional, state, and community-level structures for project development and implementation to ensure sustainable development. I have significant Africa experience having lived and worked in The Gambia, Burkina Faso, DR Congo and Ghana.
Since the beginning of 2013, and to date, I created and manage a private company, Busumbala Agro-Industrial Enterprise Ltd, producing good quality planting seed and fresh vegetables for both domestic and export markets. I operate my own farm of 7 hectares where I installed drip irrigation and using solar energy for water pumping. I grow fresh vegetables on one part and groundnut, maize and cowpeas for seed, on the other hand. Currently, I market my products in the domestic market but I have plans to sell to the export market.