The story of Norga

By Lamin Cham The Norway Gambia International holding Company NORGA LTD is a Gambian registered holding company set up by Gambians to contribute to the economic development of the Gambia, by creating employment for the youths and as well as support sports, with the same objective of opening up opportunities for Gambians. Ever since its establishment in 2014, NORGA has evolved to be a household name in the Gambia through its best known offshoot and brand West African Lotto or simply Lotto which has employed over 500 youths from a targeted 100,000 across the country . Another of their branch the West Africa Quarry product directly or directly created a further dozens of jobs for the youths. Lotto as an offshoot of NORGA provided football jerseys, ball and other kits to more than 50 clubs and sport organizations in the Gambia, in all regions and supported football from the national level, the Super Cup to local Nawettans across the country. The company’s social and corporate responsibilities extended to other sports such as wrestling and marathon races. But perhaps the biggest demonstration of NORGA’s commitment to the development of the Gambia is the innovative project of an ultra modern mini stadium currently being implemented in Brufut. The facility, being built on space provided by the community will transform the entire landscape of Gambian sports by providing it with first class infrastructure which has been lacking and hampering the development of Gambian sports development. Since its involvement in sports, a very little football town of Brufut captured national imagination and attention, growing from rag–tag army of pass time footballers into the best equipped second division team in the Gambian league. And by adopting and sponsoring the Brufut United team, NORGA directly created employment for the players and officials who are on wages and allowances. “My dream has always been to come back to my father’s home and contribute to its development and the idea of NORGA was born to achieve just that, “said Mamadi Ceesay a Gambian Norwegian, born in Norway of Gambian parentage, who along with Ba Jabbi, a native of Brufut, Louis Andrew Mendy Harvard Haugen, Ousma Nyan set up NORGA. From the onset Ceesay and Jabbi have both energetically pushed the concept of national development on top of the NORGA agenda and with the dawn of a new era in the country, they have vowed to get further involved in the overall national development agenda of the new government led by President Adama Barrow. “The new Gambia has created a fresh air of breath and all kind of opportunities for development as well as an enabling environment for the rule of law which is very essential to any development goal,” said Ba Jabbi, the CEO of NORGA. “Among the future plans of NORGA is to encourage investors through our network of contacts to invest in the Gambian economy. Now that the coming of a new era means the best environment for such things. NORGA is here to stay and we wish the nation happy celebration and successful inauguration of the Gambia’s third President,” Jabbi concluded.]]>