By: Kebba Ansu
Women entrepreneur participating in the third annual National Forestry Trade Fair 2021, have called on The Gambia government to help create a market for their products, disclosing that access to market has derailed the growth and progress of their various businesses to spread across the length and breadth of the country.
Scores of entrepreneurs who spoke to The Voice Newspaper has equally expressed their gratitude to the Ministry of Forestry and the Large Scale Eco-system- Adaptation Protection (EBA) Project for organising such an event, noting that the event will help create links, knowledge and ideas that can be used to expanding businesses.
Fatou Solley, a member of National Beekeepers Association of The Gambia (NBAG) is among dozens of women entrepreneurs gathered at the three (3) days trade fair, disclosing that her association joined the fray in a bit to exposing its products to the wider populace and access the market opportunities the event provides.
According to her, this is the third edition NBAG is taking part in such a gathering, hinting that the annual gathering has helped to connect more business partners for her association.
“We feel very happy towards the organisation of this trade fair by the Ministry of Forestry and EBA. It has created linkages and market for our products. Right now our major concern is marketing of our products to outside of the country as it will help us to reach to another level of business,” said Fatou Solley, NBAG.
Musu Drammeh of Female Beekeepers Association of the Gambia also hailed the organisers of this year’s trade fair, saying the forum has created the platform for marketing and sharing of knowledge and ideas.
Drammeh called on all and sundry to patronise local businesses and products in a bid to ensuring expansion and growth. She said the honey production and processing is a lucrative business that youths and women can venture into for economic growth and good livelihoods.
Njemeh Bojang Darboe of the Association of Farmers Educators and Traders (AFET) also hailed the gathering, described it as the only platform available for agro-forest producers and processors.
She said the need to establish contacts and market beyond the shores of the country has always been concern to many producers and processors, disclosing that with the coming of EBA many communities have now started benefitting from forest resources.
Cherno Gaye, Head of Participatory Forestry Management, Department of Forestry said the trade fair presided lots of other engagements including training on market analysis and development training. He said this would help forestry entrepreneurs on how to better utilise the resources of the forest without resorting to cutting down of trees and burning down the forest cover.
According to him, a lot of products are readily available in the forest that many people have no knowledge and what comes to the mind of many others is to cut down trees and burn the forest.
He said a lot of economy is attached to the leaves, fruits than merely falling down the trees, noting that coming together of the forest enterprises is to help them get the connections and market for their businesses.
Gaye disclosed that more than five hundred communities are currently managing their own forest cover and a good number of these communities have benefited from forestry management training.
He urged all national to take ownership of their own forest, warning that cutting down trees without replanting is the worst activity one can meted out to the forest cover.