2007 ANNUAL BUSINESS AWARDS GALA NIGHT

January 25th 2008, Sheraton Hotel

Nominees for the GCCI 2007 Young Entrepreneur of the Year

Baboucarr Khan - Chief Executive Officer, Reliance Financial Services

Baboucarr is the pioneer Chief Executive Officer, and one of the founders along with Ismaila Faal and Seedy Njie of Reliance Financial Services which

commenced operations back on 19th December 2006 having been granted a full Non-Bank Financial Institution License by the Central Bank on 11th December 2006.  Under his leadership, Reliance has achieved significant milestones that can only be the envy of numerous start up financial institutions the entire world over.

Before joining Reliance, Baboucarr was the Head of Consumer Banking at Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) in The Gambia and a member of the bank’s

management team.  Baboucarr managed a revenue budget of $7 million (about 60% of SCB’s budget) and a team of over 70 people with overall

responsibility for strategy, budget, product innovation, staff motivation and training, risk management and service delivery.

Baboucarr is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered and Certified Accountants (FCCA) in the UK graduating from Accountancy Tutors College in 2005.

Muhammed Jah -  Managing Director, QuantumNet

Muhammed Jah started his professional life as a computer hardware and software engineer at Denmark Telecom. Muhammed is one of Gambia’s Internet Pioneers. He started QuantumNET, The Gambia’s First Internet Service Providers in 1998 with 4 employees, with basically very limited funds. Even though QuantumNET was competing with the incumbent National Telecommunication Company in The Gambia, GAMTEL, QuantumNET gradually and steadily made its mark as one of the leading IT companies in The Gambia giving world wide standard services.

Within a period of 10 years, QuantumNET became a One Stop Shop IT company employing over 300 professionals with sub-regional presence. Apart from the high speed wireless Internet broadband services covering the entire greater Banjul area, QuantumNET is the premium partner and distributor for the world top electronic brand names like DELL, IBM, HP, and NOKIA.


In 2006 Muhammed started diversifying into other areas. He acquired Digital Planet, a Senegalese company well known in home appliance, representing, Samsung, Sony, Westpool etc.

With the same perception and commitment to bringing the best products and services to The African continent, Muhammed also acquired Espace Motors, distributors of Chinese cars. Within one year of opening he built a state of the art Automobile Service Centre with the best mechanical and electrical engineers.

In a ground breaking partnership, Muhammed established QuantumNET Institute of Technology creating a strong partnership with Saint Mary’s university in Halifax, Canada and University of The Gambia.

Mohammed Silla - Managing Director, Sankung Sillah & Sons Ltd.

Mohammed Silla is the current Managing Director of Sankung Sillah & Sons Ltd and MECaLite Ltd. He graduated from Oxford Brookes University in the United Kingdom with a BSc (Hon) In Economics and Accounting & Finance.

He then acquired a Masters in Business Administration at the Cardiff Business School, University Of Wales. He is a Chartered Accountant with the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

He also worked in the UK for a Blue Chip Company for 7 years in management accountant roles. In 2004, in partnership with some friends, he established MECaLite Ltd. This is candle-manufacturing operation in the Gambia.

During the same year he also, starting working with his father, the late Alhaji Sankung Sillah. He was very instrumental in the revival of the Association of Gambian Manufacturers of which he currently holds the chairmanship. In 2007, he expanded the Sankung Sillah and Sons market into the sub-region by acquiring an ECOWAS license to export to Senegal.