The training initiative which opened yesterday at the Semega Janneh Hall in Tallinding is being delivered by the National Enterprise Development Initiative in partnership with the Growth Competitiveness Project.
Executive Director of the National Youth Council, Lamin Darboe on behalf of the minister of Youth and Sports said: “Young people are engaged in a lot of activities geared towards developing themselves, their communities, their families; and to contribute towards national development and this can’t be ignored. It is quite unfortunate that some of our brothers and sisters are going through the ‘back way’ in search of what they call ‘greener pastures’. We as young people should try and develop our country and support our family but we are rather leaving this country with all the opportunities that have been created for us.”
In his address, Landing Sanneh the executive secretary of the National Enterprise Development Initiative said the main objective of the training is to expose young people and women entrepreneurs to the basic concept of enterprise development.
“It is also to build your capacities on how to promote, manage and sustain your businesses in the market. As part of the agreement deal, we are supposed to train fifty entrepreneurs in every region and we have started with the Banjul City Council and today we are here in Kanifing Municipality Council for the second module. We have drawn a work plan for the training and hopefully we will complete the cycle by early April.”
Sanneh said the training modules will include financial literacy, business management skills, record-keeping, marketing, and customer care. “We understand these are critical components in business management or enterprise development and they can sustain enterprises in the market. We have realised the gap that exists within our youth sector in term of entrepreneurship development and the women sector as well
“NEDI has conducted series of interventions but a good number of our beneficiaries fall along the way due to various factors such as inadequacy in terms of financial literacy or enterprise development skills. So it will be prudent to see how we can enhance the skills of our youth and women entrepreneurs to excel in their respective businesses and this necessitated the partnership with the Growth Competitiveness Project.”
Lamin Jobe, a representative of the Gambia Competitiveness Project commented: “My institution is a World Bank funded project with focus to ensure Gambian entrepreneurs are strengthened, able to rise to expectation and manage their own business sustainability. Higher education and training are particularly important because it is responsible for the search for truth and the creation of knowledge which are major pillars of today’s development processes and the features of a knowledge-based economy.”
Jobe said the objective of the Gambia Competitiveness Project is to contribute towards sustaining the growth of the Gambian economy and enhancing poverty reduction through the private sector.
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