The
umbrella body of The Gambia’s private sector has rolled out another opportunity
for the general public to benefit from the fortune of a car and D100,000 via
raffle as a form of appreciating the Gambian people for their patronage and
support of its services and activities.
Formed as an amalgamation with the Bathurst Chamber of Commerce and Employers Association in 1967, the Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Employers’ Association (GCCI) has been celebrating its Golden Jubilee this year, having gone through both qualitative and quantitative transformation over the years.
It has been celebrating this occasion in tandem with the new Gambia and the new leadership, as stated by the Chamber’s Chief Executive Officer Alieu Secka.
In addition to its representation of the Gambia business community at government, national and international level, amidst decisive and challenging issues, the Chamber this year had a great trade fair Gambia international, “the most successful” they have had in their 50 years of existence, where they had over three hundred stalls and international participants from all over the world. They also had “the most successful annual award dinner”, where they celebrated success with all the top businesses and entrepreneurs in The Gambia. Both events attracted international participants and top businesses and entrepreneurs in the country.
“Of course the highlight is yet to come,” CEO Secka said: “To start with we have planned a big raffle to come in the next few months, which we plan to hold at the next annual award dinner in 2018, where we will raffle a brand new Mercedes Benz of zero mileage, only for a D100 ticket.
“In addition to that there is also a hundred thousand dalasis account at GTBank [for the second winner]. These are fantastic prizes to be won, only for a D100 ticket. So we are encouraging the public to come out and enjoy but also to celebrate as this is a good way to give back to the community.”
Mr Secka said the rationale behind the raffle is to create awareness of the GCCI and the services it offers to the public and the business community, as well as to celebrate and give the public and the business community something they can own.
“We are planning to have these tickets widely available everywhere - at Atlas Petrol Station and other stations, as well as at the chamber,” he said. “But we also intend to have some road shows, so that we can sensitize the public about our activities. Furthermore everybody who would like to win a brand new Mercedes Benz can visit the GCCI webpage or the Facebook page of GCCI, or if you come to the Chamber you can find this brand Mercedes Benz waiting to be won, and hopefully we can give the key to someone in the next few months.”
Mr Secka also said other activities are coming up. “We plan to have a big road show so that we can sensitize and inform the public more about the activities that we do, the services we render, and the representation that we make at government and stakeholders level, but particularly the articulation of business interest with the Gambia government as well as making that offer to international investors.
“I think these are important services that we have offered for 50 years; we want to share these successes more with the public. So in the next few days we will actually have a series of programmes coming on GRTS when we will feature our past GCCI presidents to tell us the various work that they have done over the years.”
The CEO of the private sector umbrella body said further that they will also hold some business meetings at the end of the year, where and when they will talk about topical issues that matter to the Gambian people and the business community and, of course, the Gambia government.
