Over 50 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) have been selected as first cohort under the Tourism Diversification and Resilience Project to undergo months of coaching and business incubation to enable them meet quality standards for their products and services to be purchased by lead firms such as hotels, tour operators and other major industry players.
The selected businesses represent a range of innovative solutions ready to make a significant impact in the tourism sector. The cohort will also receive grants for up to $50,000 to help their businesses grow, become more resilient and be integrated into the tourism value chain.
The $68 million World Bank project aims to boost Gambia’s tourism sector productivity, sustainability, resilience, and inclusive growth. As part of the project implementation process, IBF International and its local partner RCM Gambia are tasked with implementing sub-component (1b) of the project to provide tailored business training, expertise, and capacity building as well as conduct assessment of MSMEs and lead firms to understand their challenges and gaps, determine what each needs and connect them to engage in buyer/supplier networks.
About 200 local businesses will benefit under this component and they will be selected and trained in various phases
Speaking at the launching of the first cohort of the Accelerator Program at the DK Jawara International Conference Centre on Tuesday World Bank Country Representative Franklin Mutahakana said: “The World Bank Group’s partnership with the Gambia includes the commitment to assist the government to achieve inclusive and resilient private sector driven job creation as specified in the government’s development strategies and the Bank’s country partnership framework program.
He expressed optimism that the “Accelerator Program” will serve as a lubricant to support the development of MSMEs and enable them play a key role in the tourism sector.
Codou Jabang-Senghore, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Tourism, stressed that tourism in the Gambia presents unexploited potential to cause significant gains through spillovers on local MSMEs and one of these growth opportunities is through a lead firm approach to MSME solutions.
She disclosed that all the leading hotels in the country have expressed willingness to buy and do businesses with the MSMEs including agro processors and those that can enhance digital marketing, supply extensions, provide platforms for sales and information sharing.
These selected businesses will undergo a 6-month technical and compliance capacity support such as business planning, technology selections, product quality enhancement and productivity improvements.
“We hope that these businesses will become investment ready by the end of this incubation program meaning they are at a place where they now have systems in place and capacity and if you give them money they have the capacity to absorb it and use it into productive way for us to have they have a ready market to supply lead firms,” Team leader Hamid Marrah said.
He said there will be three other cohorts and called for new applications will commence in month.
