Speaking at the handing-over ceremony, Benjamin Robert, Director General of Gambia Tourism Board (GTB), called on the women fruit sellers to maintain the facility so it would go a long way in complementing their work.
The GTB director told the fruit sellers that they would get the support of the GTB and the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, hence appealed to the women to take care of the facility and always keep it clean to attract customers, especially tourists.
He said GTB would provide water tap for them, which they should maintain and utilise well.
Fatou Beyai, Director of Product Development, Investment and Culture, GTB, said they have a small fund they used to build the new facility to help women.
“We think that tourism should benefit more Gambians and the only way we think that we can do that is to come and partner with the women who are in business in tourism to be able to make more business in the tourism sector,” she said.
Having this new facility would be useless if the services were not there, she stated, adding that they are encouraging the women to keep up the good work so they could improve their services and have more people coming to buy their goods.
Fatima Sanneh, president of fruit sellers, on behalf of the fruit sellers thanked the GTB, Ministry of Tourism and Culture and all those who attended the ceremony.
She assured the director of GTB that the facility would be taken care of as they would do everything possible to ensure everything goes well in the building.
GTB’s Ousman Kebbeh chaired the ceremony.