By Ousman Seckan
A young entrepreneur in the North Bank town of Kerewan, Mr. Lamin Kinteh, has lamented the negative impacts of the global Coronavirus Disease, otherwise Covid-19, pandemic on his seeds and garden materials business.
Kinteh admitted being hard-hit by the ravaging virus as some of his stocks are finished and the demand is still high.
It could be noted that the outbreak of coronavirus, which started off in China, has caused colossal loss of lives, brought some big and small businesses to almost to their knees; and airpaces, sea and land borders were closed in different parts of the globe, thus hampering trade and human movements, and the small West African nation of the Gambia is not an exception.
In an interview with Mansa Banko Online, Kinteh indicated that before the outbreak he used to travel to Kaolack, Senegal, to buy seeds and materials, but that due to the closure of the Gambia/Senegal borders, he is unable to go.
Kinteh, 32, who started his business two years ago by going round the villages with few tins of seeds to sell, now runs his own vegetable seeds and garden materials shop in Kerewan. This was after he won the Rural Youth Award in 2019 as the “Best service provider”. The business attracts scores of vegetable gardeners in the region and beyond but, again, the Covid pandemic and resultant border closure had prevented him from restocking his shop.
His words: “It’s because of this pandemic I cannot go to Senegal; so things are tough at the moment. This [Covid-19] has affected me a lot. I used to go to Senegal virtually every week– twice or so, but when the pandemic hits everything stops; that is why my shop runs out of stock. At the early days of the pandemic my shop was closed for almost a month.’’
The young Kerewan businessman is also engaged in horticultural gardening and farming, saying most of his customers come from Senegal to buy his harvest, but because of the border issue he could not generate much from his recent harvest.
“Last year, I sold a bag of onion at D1900.00 or D1800.00, but this year I sold a bag at D500.00 or D450.00. This is largely due to the closure of the border as most of my customers come from Senegal. This has affected me immensely,’’ the award winning entrepreneur decried.
Kinteh, who works with women and youth associations in the NBR, has a similar shop in Farafenni town and plans to open another one Niumi in the future, in order to expand his business.
Hear him again: “I have a similar shop in Farafenni which is run by my sister, but I have planned to open another one in Upper Niumi because I have a large customer base there. Most of the horticultural gardeners do come all the way from there to buy from me.”
Kinteh used the interview to encourage the youth folk to venture into farming and other enterprises as they are the cream of the nation. He underlined that one can’t have a full-fledged independence if one is not committed to work.
