A number of five young Gambian entrepreneurs’ selected from Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN) Gambia Chapter Rural Youth Champions will benefit from a weeklong Regional Exchange visit to Dakar, Senegal from 26th – 31st May, 2019. The Regional Exchange visit is funded by the Youth Empowerment Project (YEP).
Speaking to reporters shortly before departure, Mamadou Edrisa Njie, Executive Director of GYIN Gambia said while in Dakar, the participating entrepreneurs will visit businesses of Senegalese entrepreneurs’ in their sectors and enhance their professional networks.
The Regional Exchange Visit, he added, is part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in 2018 between the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva and GYIN Gambia Chapter with the collaboration of the Government of the Republic of the Gambia.
Commenting further on the trip, Njie thanked the YEP Project for funding the visit as well as all other partners that have been supporting GYIN Gambia technically and financially since its formation in 2012.
He continued: “the visit will also create opportunities for partnership and networking as it is such opportunities that Gambian young entrepreneurs’’ need to expose their potentials and belong to a pool of great networkers.
As a network that focuses on rural development with special attention in the agricultural sector, Njie asserted that visiting agro product institutions and enterprises in Senegal is a well-meaning reason.
While giving reference to conducted study visit by his organisation for its participants to visit agro centers in the country such as Farm Fresh, Ever Green Garden among other places during its Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Information & Technology (ELIT) 2018 National Youth Summer Camp, he explained that visiting agro ventures is part of GYIN Gambia’s activities in a bid to expose rural youths to learn new skills and innovative techniques.
In a WhatsApp interview with Ms. Yama NDIAYE, Director General of WA YAbi Distribution, whose company is also selected to be visited, said the visit will enable young Gambian entrepreneurs to learn and see what their fellows are doing in Senegal saying, “this kind of visit is commendable because it serves a platform for networking.”
“It was a great pleasure and honor meeting with brother, Mamadou Edrisa Njie, Executive Director of GYIN Gambia during the Global Entrepreneurship Week in Dakar, Senegal in 2018,” she said.
“It was during that conference that we shared our contact addresses and since then, we’ve been in touch and all our discussions centered on how can my company partner with GYIN Gambia,”
According to Director General of WA YAbi, her partnership with GYIN Gambia opens many doors of opportunities for both parties, saying the Regional Exchange Visit for five Rural Youth Award Winners is one of the benefits.
Her company, Ms. NDIAYE said, specializes in local products and sell only organic products that are very popular in the local and international markets.
She stated that WA YAbi Distribution normally participates in the Dakar Farmers’ Market which is organized every first Saturday of every month in Dakar, Senegal.