Since March 2010, the Ambassador from Gambia to the United States has been Alieu Momodou Ngum. Born August 12, 1950, in Gambia, which was a British colony at the time, Ngum grew up and received his secondary education there. Leaving the country for England, Ngum was educated at Keele University and at the University of Bradford, where he earned a degree in Development Economics. Ngum pursued related graduate studies, first in Industrial Policy at Dublin University, and some years later in Financial Policy at the IMF Institute in Washington, DC.

 

Returning to Gambia in 1976, Ngum was hired by the Ministry of Economic Planning and Industrial Development as a Cadet Economist and by 1989 had risen to Director of Planning. From 1990 to 1996, Ngum served as Permanent Secretary of Finance and Economic Affairs, and concurrently as an Alternate Governor to the World Bank, African Development Bank and Islamic Development Bank. He also served as National Authorizing Officer under the European Union–African, Pacific and Caribbean countries arrangement. From 1996 to 1998, he served as Secretary General and Head of the Civil Service in the Office of The President of Gambia.

 

His first ambassadorship was from 1999 to 2000, as Gambia’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, with accreditation to nine additional Arab countries, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Organization of African Unity in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. From 2000 to 2002 he served as Gambia’s ambassador to Belgium, with concurrent accreditation to eight European countries, the European Commission, and World Trade Organization.

 

Returning home in 2002, he again served as Secretary General and Head of the Civil Service until June 2005, when he was again appointed as Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs, a job he kept only five months, as he was reassigned as Secretary of State for Trade, Industry and Employment in November 2005. Later he became chairman of the National Planning Commission.

 

Ngum and his wife, Aminatta, have four children.

-Matt Bewig