EMPRETEC
Gambia on Saturday concluded a 6-day training workshop on entrepreneurship as
part of series of events that it continues to organise to create more
entrepreneurs in the country.
Held
at the Entrepreneurship Development Centre in Bakau, the training was the 26th
edition of such event and it was bankrolled by the Ministry of Trade, Industry,
Regional Integration and Employment, and the UNDP.
EMPRETEC
Gambia has so far trained more than 1,071 entrepreneurs and farmers across the
country and provided business development services to more than 700
entrepreneurs and farmers.
Lamin
Dampha, deputy permanent secretary at the Ministry of Trade, said it is through
entrepreneurship that a country can be transformed for the better as
“entrepreneurs are the game-changers and wealth creators of every nation”.
Empretec
Ghana director, Nana Buwateh, said the training was “very important and
needful” as it was aimed at developing the human resource potential of the
participants to be able to create more employment and wealth.
“The
training will improve the quality and entrepreneurial mindset of persons that
must convert whatever that is convertible into wealth in the country,” he said.
Mariama
Fatajo, export and business development officer at the Gambia Investment and
Export Promotion Agency (GIEPA), said the training is expected to expose the
participants to the basics of being a successful entrepreneur.
Lamin
Touray, chairman of Empretec Gambia, said the Ministry of Trade has done a
great job in generating policies with the enabling environment for aspiring
entrepreneurs to emerge and flourish.
Joyce
Mwama, a marketing and management student at the University of The Gambia and
one of the participants, said she learned valuable basic skills of
entrepreneurship such as planning, persistence and confidence which would go a
long way to enhance her real life prospects in business.
The
six-day training was geared towards a transformational change in agriculture
and industry by unleashing the potential of small-scale farmers and micro,
small and medium scale enterprises.
Empretec
officials believed that this can be achieved through provision of programmed
package of entrepreneurial and management skills training.
This
is to be accompanied by a coordinated delivery of customised business advisory
and mentorship services to develop a cadre of entrepreneurs that actually set
up successful and growth oriented enterprises.
