By Fatou Dem
Recently, the Gambia Women’s Chamber of Commerce had gone to four regions to sensitize women about business registration and business development.
The regions include; Lower River Region, Central River Region, North Bank Region, Lower River Region and West Coast Region
Meanwhile, the West Coast Region is yet to be part of the sensitization, as it is among the targeted regions.
The sensitization commences on Monday 4th July 2021.
The Gambia Women’s Chamber of Commerce was launched with the purpose to “Unleash the economic potentials of Women-owned Businesses’ in the Gambia”.
The purpose of the sensitization was for the regional women to know about business development and for those who want to initiate a business and be a registered member of the GWCC and also benefit from the opportunities the Chamber offers.
Maria Dacosta, a board member of GWCC, enlightened the women about GWCC, saying that it’s for their business recognition and prospects.
Madam Dacosta added that being a member of GWCC will help them to go on the right path in their businesses. ‘It does not matter the kind of business you are engaged in, GWCC is there to help in all business categories.’
She challenged the regional women to put efforts into their businesses as some urban women are benefiting a lot from GWCC and getting recognised Internationally for their products.
She said that they find it necessary to reach out to the rural women so that they can also be beneficiaries and be recognised by all.
She called on women to be part of the Trade Fair to market their products easily because she said that their commodities will go worldwide and GWCC will also help them in marketing their products and providing them with all that they can do.
Ndey Corr a member of the Gambia Chamber of Commerce double as a member of GWCC shared her experience as being one of the leading and recognised members of GWCC because of the opportunities and support the chamber offers her.
She also called on the women to be part of the solution of their business development and excel.
Maimuna Sanyang, business development officer, GWCC, shed light on their partnerships with various stakeholders especially the International Trade Center that launched the SheTrade initiative to create an ecosystem of integrated solutions that empower women economically through greater integration in trade and investment and the objective of She Trade is to enable Gambian Women to benefit from economic participation.
Meanwhile, she said that they also partner with Qmoney for easy transactions for members of GWCC and every month each member will receive a commission from Q money.
She said emphasised their partnership with Reliance bank, saying that members of GWCC can take a loan from the bank if needed in their businesses.
For communication and easy access for regional women, each region has their focal person to help them in registering and being a member of GWCC.
Fatoumatta Sambu, The Gambia partnerships and project manager, ThundaFund, also partnered with GWCC. She shared her part with the regional women to make their businesses known by publishing their products and finding easy assistants from neighbouring countries who are willing to extend a hand to their businesses.
Pap Ceesay, Chief Executive officer, Janjanbureh Area Council said that the businesses in the urban sites are not easy and GWCC has seen it important to help in developing their businesses which mean they are doing decentralisation and equalising all women in all kinds of businesses.
