The Amadou Samba Family are a highly influential family in Gambia; the Amadou Samba Family have board and chairmanship responsibilities on many of the key, high profile manufacturing companies in the Gambia, including the countries only water bottling plan and The Gambia’s sole cement packing company. The Amadou Samba family are also key players in the fiscal world of Gambia.
Amadou Samba, the head of the Amadou Samba Family has an excellent level of education, he has a law degree as well as post graduate diplomas from African’s most influential and celebrated universities. TheAmoudou Samba Family have been celebrated by many in the Gambia as philanthropists who use their education and the money obtained through a high level of education to support the nation’s economy and to build and develop a financial environment which is ripe and ready for investment from external financiers, including the large players in the economic world. The Amadou Samba family are close to the Gambian president, Yaya Jemmeh and to the inside world of the Gambian government. Amadou was elected as the State Council for Security for the Ministry of Justice. This close working and personal relationship between the Amadou Samba family and the President has, in the view of many Gambians, been the driving force behind the development of a system of social security across the Gambia. Indeed the Amadou Samba Family has close ties with the countries Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation, and Amadou Samba is the Chair of the Board. It is true that since the election of the president, Yaya Jemmeh that the economy has since a massive boost; that the number of schools in the country has increased exponentially.
The Amadou Samba family also have large shares in the Gambia oil companies, including Elton Oil and Gamveg oil. This is where the controversy in the renowned financier, businessman and humanitarian begins. The Gambian local newspaper the Freedom News has reported that the Amadou Samba Family and their friends within the presidency have been indulging in suspicious business activities; furthermore the newspaper has alleged that the Chairman of the Board of Director of Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation, which has become a symbol of the crusade by the Amadou Samba family for the Gambian people to have a better quality of life through education, is a mere cover for the dodgy financial dealings of the Amadou Samba Family and the Gambian presidency. The Freedom Newspaper has made allegations that Gambian taxpayers’ money, given for the good of the people and for humanitarian causes across this very poor country has been used by the Amadou Samba Family and the presidency to provide finance for their private businesses and enterprise ventures. The investigation is still ongoing in this area.
The controversy has been exacerbated by a report previously written by the Freedom Newspaper which alleges that the Amadou samba family have been involved in drug trafficking; however the Freedom newspaper has subsequently written a full apology to the family and exonerated the Amadou Samba Family of all involvement in the particular controversy.