By Mariam Williams
The Gambia Youth Chamber of Commerce (GYCC) from 20th–24th January, 2020, held a training workshop for 25 Coaches on Business Coaching at the Agricultural Rural Farmers Training Centre in Jenoi, in the Lower River Region (LRR).
Held on the theme, “Improving and enhancing the skills of Business Coaches to support start-up Business in The Gambia”, the training was aimed at helping young entrepreneurs of the country develop themselves, and to support 80 Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs).
Mr. Almamo Dibba, GYCC Regional Chapter President for LRR, said the purpose of the training was to help the young entrepreneurs develop themselves. He urged participants to stay focused and participate as expected.
Chairman of Mansakonko Area Council (MKAC) in LRR, Mr. Landing B. Sanneh, observed that many a time, people accuse young people of the country of not being serious or wanting to work. But Sanneh described such views as misconceptions, maintaining young people of this country want to work and are also serious. He hoped the training would help them to support young entrepreneurs move from one level to another.
He pointed out that partners coming together to train youth would go a long way in addressing challenges entrepreneurship face in the country, reasoning, because they have seen or met a lot of young entrepreneurs with start-ups.
According to him, GIEPA alone has trained thousands of youth and women in entrepreneurship, with NEDI and others also training a lot of young people.
The head of Mansakonko Area Council opined that with the knowledge and skills, youth only need support and encouragement to get to the next level. Chairman Sanneh thanked partners for making the 5 days training a success.
Suwaibou Cham, the GIZ project representative said they are here to enhance the skills component development of young people in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), and have identified 17 trade areas, as well as helping entrepreneurs to develop themselves.
“To create sustainable development,we must create sustainable institutions”, he charged, adding this was why they are supporting GYCC to build the capacities of its staff and those affiliated to it, to become a sustainable institution.
Cham explained the reason for the coaching programme was because Trade Fair participants had been decrying low sales. Noting that trade fairs are for networking, the GIZ official pointed out that they have to enhance and change the mindset of Trade Fair participants.
Mr. Baboucarr Kebbeh is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GYCC, and he said the objective of the training was to support the 80 Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs).
The training brought together coaches from Greater Banjul Area, LRR and URR, and Kebbeh thanked GIZ for their support and confident in GYCC. The CEO said their aim is to ensure that the young people of this country not only produce products and services, but also have markets to sell their products.
While telling the participants that they know the journey might be rough along the way, Kebbeh, however, expressed their hope that trainee Coaches would not disappoint them after the training.
Other speakers included, Mr. Saikou Darboe, Regional Chairman of LRR, who termed LRR as one of the regions that are mostly affected in terms of unemployment. He also believed the reason why young people in their region are not applying for, or not getting, some of the grants is because “we don’t have hubs in the region like the Greater Banjul Area…”
He urged government to at least help the young people of the regions with hubs for them to be able to apply for some of the available grants.
Darboe had said he’s expecting to learn a lot at the end of those five days of training.
