By Sulayman Waan
The Enterprise Development Officer at the Gambia Youth Chamber of Commerce (GYCC), Mr. Kawsu Fadera, has called on the Gambia government to grant young entrepreneurs a three-year tax break for a startup, in order to sustain their businesses.
Speaking exclusively to the Mansa Banko Online on Friday, 29 June, 2020 in his office, Fadera stressed that giving a tax break is not to the advantage of the entrepreneurs alone but also the state itself, justifying that “because the bigger their (entrepreneurs’) businesses the more taxes they pay to the government”.
The young business officer noted that even though government offers young entrepreneurs five-years tax exclusion, the state will still recover the tax exemption in short time due to the fact that the enterprises would grow larger, thereby enabling government to receive more income taxes from the enterprises and their employees. “This will reduce poverty, dependency rate and youth unemployment rate in the country,” Fadera said.
For a recollection, at the 2017 National Youth Conference and Festival (NaYCONF), the Executive Director of the Gambia chapter of Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN), Mr. Mamadou Edrisa Njie, had called on the Barrow-led government to give five years tax exemption to the young entrepreneurs.
While GYCC’s Fadera held that imposing income-tax on newly established enterprise will retard their business development, he was quick to add that if such enterprises are given three years tax break it would help them to develop rapidly.
Speaking further, he noted, “Over the years, many young people have been involved in entrepreneurship and other forms of businesses.”
The GYCC official pointed out that the coming of many business service provider institutions has count a lot on the improvement of young entrepreneurship in the nation. Fadera argued that for the past three years, they have seen lots of improvement in youth involving in business, and he believes the country is heading to a positive direction towards young entrepreneurship and business.
The Gambia has some projects such as Youth Empowerment Project, funded by the European Development Fund and implemented by the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) in collaboration with the International Trade Centre (ITC) that issue grants to young entrepreneurs. The German Development Agency, GIZ, also grants funds to young entrepreneurs. The country also has business development service institutions like Gambia Investment and Export Promotion Agency (GIEPA) and National Enterprise Development Initiative (NEDI), meant to render business services to entrepreneurs.
The Gambia Youth Chamber of Commerce (GYCC), Global Youth Innovation Network- Gambia Chapter (GYIN), and Ida’s IDEA, are also among the pro-youth institutions that help young entrepreneurs and small scale business holders.
Notwithstanding, Fadera revealed that there are a lot of challenges affecting Gambian young entrepreneurs, particularly access to finance and business development services, by some entrepreneurs, especially provincials. He noted that young entrepreneurs in the rural area find it difficult to access business development services owing to their distance from the urban area where business service providers are based.
The GYCC Enterprise Development Officer stressed the need for government to decentralize business service institutions such as GIEPA and NEDI in order to reduce the burden of young entrepreneurs travelling to the urban area just to meet these providers.
