Young
Entrepreneurs Association (YEA) on Friday organised a daylong seminar at the
America Corner at Kairaba Avenue to sensitise young people, including
university students, to change their mindsets towards entrepreneurship.
The
main speaker for the day, Alieu Jallow, who is the founder of YEA and Startup
Incubator Gambia, said entrepreneurship is not just a matter of buying and
selling; an entrepreneur is a person who solves a problem or add value to a
product or service to the delight of the people.
Speaking
on the theme ‘Building an entrepreneurship ecosystem that thrives in the new
Gambia’, Mr Jallow said in creating a business, one must think big, start small
and move fast and also prepare to capitalise on crises.
He
emphasised that as a startup entrepreneur, you must know about the government
policies, business entry regulations, tax regulations, and networking
opportunities.
The
entrepreneurship mentor said from experience in mentoring young people, many of
them used to say their main challenge in business is finance.
“But
to start a business, you don’t need large amount of money, be innovative and
work hard, money will come,” he said, adding that there are financial
institutions that support startup incubators with loan or other financial aid.
Jallow
further explained that for entrepreneurship to grow in society well, the
academia has a role to play by teaching students to be job creators, not job
seekers.
“We
should remove the negative concept that entrepreneurship is more of buying and
selling,” he said. “Any person you
employed as a businessman, you have reduced the rate of unemployment in The
Gambia.”
The
entrepreneurship mentor said the education system should also introduce more of
practical than theoretical skills acquisition courses.
He
noted that NGOs and civil society organisations also have a greater role to create
awareness on the importance of entrepreneurship in the development of the
country.
At
the seminar, success stories of young entrepreneurs who had gone through the
Startup Incubator Programme to become successful entrepreneurs were shared to
inspire others. These include Muhammed
Sanyang, CEO of MBK Farm who started with 500 chicks and now has 11,000
chickens; Binta Jarju, BJ CREATION and Ndey Fatou Ceesay, Nnool Creation, who
is now a successful fashion designer.
