By Mamadou Edrisa Njie
The Minister of Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment (MoTIE), Hon. Lamin Jobe has disclosed that boosting job creation for young Gambians is top priority for the government of The Gambia.
He was speaking at the launching of the Tekki Fii Grant on Friday, 27th September, 2019 at a colourful ceremony convened at the National Association of Credit Unions of The Gambia (NACCUG) head office in Bakau.
“We need to invest in our youth to acquire market-oriented skills. We need to invest in relevance, quality and access to technical and vocational skills training to ensure young Gambians are ready for the job market.”
“Tekki-Fii” (a Wollof word meaning ‘Make It In The Gambia’) Programme initiative will equip youth with job-ready skills and entrepreneurship opportunities in a variety of sector.
The Tekki Fii Grant Programme will benefit 5,000 young Gambians with skills training and entrepreneurship support; while 2,500 small businesses operating in different sectors including agribusiness will be supported technically and financially.
The programme will also help rebuild rural infrastructure, including access to water, storage, rural roads, processing units and proactive fencing for market gardens.
It will also benefit 1,000 young people through improved sports facilities and activities in rural areas.
Minister Jobe told the gathering that the Tekki Fii programme would provide the much-needed financial support to grass root entrepreneurs and MSMEs to start and grow their business.
He held that as a country, there is need to foster a culture of entrepreneurship and provide young Gambians with the knowledge, tools and support to succeed as entrepreneurs.
MoTIE Minister stressed the need to invest in Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs), noting that MSMEs are the engines of economic growth in all economies around the world, and the Gambia not an exception.
Jobe further stated that small businesses are the bedrock of the country’s economy, and that small businesses are also important driver for innovation and product development.
He acknowledged that they are at the forefront of value addition- thereby creating quality jobs at home.
According to Minister Jobe, MSMEs also attract investments, particularly foreign direct investment in the productive sectors, especially sectors with high employment potential.
He spoke of his Ministry’s mapping assessment of the MSMEs indicating that, there were about 150,000 MSMEs in The Gambia in 2018; 98 percent are operating as sole proprietors of which, about 23 percent, fall in the youth category.
The survey, as the Minister added, also found that more than 80 percent of businesses in The Gambia didn’t have access to formal or informal loans. For those who have access to finance, the terms and conditions of loan repayments are often unfavorable, according to Minister Jobe.
In addition, the vast majority of MSMEs don’t have access to business development services.
These figures and realities, he maintained, reinforce the need for urgent measures to offer economic opportunities to the youth.
To create jobs, Employment Minister boss said they need to invest in the skills development for young people and support their private sector to grow and the MSMEs size businesses to become more competitive.
To the Minister, the scaling of the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP) Mini Grant Scheme windows provide a big push for private sector led growth and job creation for young Gambians, in particular in rural parts of the country.
“I’m convinced that the different interventions of the Tekki Fii programme will bring us closer to the National Development Plan’s objective of reducing unemployment to 30 percent by 2021,” he positively argued.
In conclusion, he expressed his profound gratitude to the National Association of Cooperative Credit Unions of The Gambia (NACCUG) and all the development partners involved in the implementation of the Tekki Fii Programme.
