By Lamin Kujabi
Banjul, 15th May: His Excellency President Adama Barrow on Wednesday, 14th May, presented a cheque for 1.4 million US dollars to 57 beneficiaries of micro, small and medium enterprises for tourism sector.
The Ministry of Tourism and Culture secured this fund from World Bank to support the small and medium holder businesses in the tourism sector.
Momodou Ceesay, Project Director, said the grant is supported through the 68 million Dollar World Bank-funded Tourism Diversification and Resilience in The Gambia project. “Today’s event is under component one, which is to support small businesses in tourism to enhance the value chain,” Ceesay explained.
The cheque presented, he said is for a six-month business development support that was granted to selected businesses. He said they expect to have three more core hubs up to 2027, who will also benefit from this business development support. The Project Director said selected businesses will benefit from coaching and a matching grant to support their businesses through the acceleration programme.
“The grant was provided by the government through the Ministries of Finance and Tourism. In the next six months there will be a completion of another core hub”.
Hamidou Manga, Team Leader, IBM consortium, explained that the idea is to build the capacities of SMEs in the tourism sector, and get them integrated into tourism sector.
“We all know how much the tourism sector contributes to Gambia’s economy and development. We all witness the growth that happened in the sector; we want Gambian small businesses to be part of that growth sector”.
Mr Manga called on all small business owners to apply the programme, assuring them of robust, transparent and competitive selection process.
Ms Cham, a beneficiary, acknowledged the significant impact of the grant, assuring of their commitment, and determination.
