By Sainabou Sambou
Mam Jarra Secka, a young Gambian female entrepreneur has shared with Gambia Daily her inspiration to establish a laundry soap factory.
In this exclusive interview, Ms. Secka said that she has loved doing business since she was young. She said she is into soap manufacturing, fashion and transportation businesses. She however informed that she started the fashion business before moving into laundry soap making, when she realised that lot of people are into the other business. “I watch videos on YouTube on how to make laundry soap. I had been making laundry soap, carrot soap and Neem soap for two years for home use only,” she said. She only started her laundry soap manufacturing factory six months ago.
“I know only one Gambian laundry soap manufacturing company, that is the Sankung Sillah company, which is not in existence now. Most of the factories that I went to learn laundry soap making did not give me the opportunity to learn, and they are owned by Arabs and Indians. This was what motivated me to start my own laundry soap manufacturing company,” she said.
The young entrepreneur added that most of the ingredients that she uses to make her laundry soap are not in The Gambia; that she imports them from China, Indonesia and Mali. “I have salesmen who sell for me and we also have a delivery team that delivers the soaps to our customers and does marketing. I do marketing for myself using my Tik tok and Facebook platforms,” she said.
Ms Secka employed five salesmen and five producers. She hopes to employ more people as the business grows.
She noted that her costumers demand the red laundry soap more but that the ingredients are not available in The Gambia; that she has to import them, which she said is challenging.
