Wilbur Milhouse is in the country on a familiarisation tour, feasibility study and potential investment search in what is his first visit to the Smiling Coast of Africa.
The top entrepreneur is in the country on the invitation of Mr Assan Faal, the chief executive officer of SCOA Capital Investments, an investment bank with focus to showcase the country as an investment powerhouse.
“We have been looking for opportunities in Africa for some time and we found out about The Gambia from our friend [Mr Assan Faal] who said this is a great country where we can come and look at some of the opportunities,” Mr Milhouse said. We make the trip to come and work on opportunities in the power and infrastructure sectors in The Gambia. Most of what we do is in infrastructure and power.”
The top investor said that during his week-long stay, he will interact with the various stakeholders to explore business prospects in the country.
“My firm has been doing a lot with airports for the last ten years. For the last ten years, we have been working with O’Hare Airport which is one of the busiest airports in the world,” he added. We do a lot of work with waste water systems. In America we treat our dirty water where we sometimes get it treated and release it into our river systems and utilise it. We also take bio-fuel and create energy and one of the projects that we are doing in DC utilises human waste to create energy.”
Mr Milhouse said one of the major factors that inform their choice of starting a business either in The Gambia or any other country is decent payback and whether that investment is wise. “[These are investments] that will materialise, grow healthy, won’t falter in any kind of way and just make sense financially,” he said.
Wilbur stated that he is willing to invest in the country if he gets the necessary support and collaboration from the stakeholders. “I only know what I read and to be honest, in America you don’t always read the best things about other countries,” he said.
He added: “From my standpoint, knowing that The Gambia is using imported diesel which takes the major portion of your power, tells me that there are opportunities. There are opportunities to use other renewable sources and other means that can produce fuel as a way of using power in a more efficient way. The key is it makes it cheaper and affordable.”
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