By Lamin Cham
The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Taraba state, Federal Republic of Nigeria, John Benzena, accompanied by its majority leader and 19 other members from the Assembly, arrived in The Gambia yesterday.
The State Parliament is currently on recess and its members have decided to spend their holiday meeting sessions in The Gambia where they will also pay courtesy calls on senior Gambian parliamentarians and President Adama Barrow.
The visit is arranged by the Taraba State Assembly in conjunction with Mansea Hotel Limited, whose owner, David Sabo Kente, a long-term tourism investor in The Gambia’s tourism sector, said the visit is part of his vision to promote intra- African tourism, especially to The Gambia
”This visit is designed to expose the Taraba state legislators to The Gambia so that they too can sell Destination- Gambia to the other state assemblies in Nigeria,” Kente said.
He said the visit is also an initiative by Gambian economic diplomat Sheriff Baldeh of Sofora International Diplomatic Consultancy, in collaboration with the Executive Coordinator of KM Bakary Singhateh.
David Sabo Kente, popularly known as DSK is a Nigerian businessman, politician and philanthropist from Taraba State who came to The Gambia over 15 years ago. His Dee Es Kay Group is working on building shopping malls in The Gambia in the quest to boost tourism. ”’We have gone as far as obtaining land for the project and through the initiative and global outreach of Ambassador Sheriff Baldeh, funding will be obtained to build the shopping malls as part of the tourism development of this country, Kente said. He called on government to continue providing the right environment for businesses to thrive, which is peace, tax holidays and financial interventions for investments to grow, He paid tribute to Minister Hamat Bah a long time tourism operator, and former minister who inspired him to come to The Gambia more than a decade ago to invest in Mansea Beach Hotel.
