The historic ceremony - witnessed and held in collaboration with government and business stakeholders - attracted massive attendance by prominent Gambians, individuals from the sub-region and across the world.
Alongside members of the diplomatic corps and international business partners of the company, notable Gambians included the Minister for Public Service, Babucarr Bouye, who deputised for President Adama Barrow; National Assembly member for Foni Kansala, Almameh Gibba; National Assembly member for Kiang West Lamin Ceesay, and other top government functionaries and traditional Gambian leaders.
Equally, the community of Kanfenda embraced Mr Alassan Ceesay’s pioneering business move staged in their community, attending in their numbers and showing appreciation of Alassan's vision.
The initial plan, according to information by the company, was to construct a mango juice processing factory. However, the idea shifted to a grander aspiration for a multi-purpose factory that would also produce essential food items, such as millet flour, condensed milk and others, for The Gambia and beyond.
In his discourse during the ceremony, Mr Alassan Ceesay, founder and CEO of Rahma Gambia Limited, said: "As Gambians, we have always been a proud and hardworking people. Yet today we face a stark reality: over 70 percent of the food we consume is imported. Every year, we send tens of millions of dollars abroad to buy rice, cooking oil, fruit juices, tomato paste and other basic food products. These are foods that we have the land, the people and the resources to produce ourselves."
He added: "This not just an economic issue. It is a matter of national survival. How can we ever be a strong and independent nation if we rely on others to feed us? When we import food, we do not just import rice and other essential goods; we import poverty, we import unemployment, we import economic stagnation, because the money leaves our economy instead of circulating within it."
Mr Ceesay, who studied Masters of Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation at the University of Cambridge and remains an ardent believer of social innovation and creativity in creating jobs and ensuring sustainable development, lamented the persistent struggles Gambian farmers endure, the underdevelopment of local industries and the menace of lack of employment and opportunities for young people. He iterated that the factory is the result of a vision that seeks a paradigm shift that would change the narrative in food processing and the general industrial sector in The Gambia.
Minister Babucarr Bouy, in his discourse on behalf of President Barrow, whom he deputised for and his administration expressed government’s unflinching commitment to encourage and support industrial investment in the endeavour to enhance local production and create more jobs in The Gambia.
Meanwhile, now that the construction project had begun, it is projected that completion would be attained in one year.
"We have introduced policies and incentives, like the special investment certificates, offering tax breaks and duty exemptions for enterprises contributing to national development," Mr Bouy said, capturing the steps being taken by government to that end.
