By: NyimaSillah
Supersonicz in collaboration with The Gambia Teachers Cooperative Credit Union, on Thursday, organized a two-day capacity-building training for entrepreneurs in the small ruminant sector on Islamic Micro Financing.
The two days capacity building training aims to improve the skills of the entrepreneurs to flourish their businesses and access Islamic microfinance to increase the production and productivity of small ruminants in the country.
Mamud Njie, Project Director of the Small Ruminant Production Enhancement Project said: the purpose of the meeting is to gather some of the beneficiaries who have access to loans from Islamic microfinance to train them, enlarged them, and increased their knowledge on entrepreneurship and also give them more information on Islamic financing.
“50 participants are selected and a subsequent will also be held in the upcountry where fifty participants will also attend because we want to enhance their knowledge in Islamic microfinance,” he noted.
He also said the objective of the small ruminant project is to increase the production and productivity of small ruminants in the country and encourage people to become entrepreneurs in the production of small ruminants that have many branches.
Njie mentioned that the activity is to access Islamic microfinance but they have components in production and marketing areas. Adding that constructions are already underway in the production and marketing areas.
“We hope that In the next twelve months all these facilities will be ready so that production will have somewhere to sell, a place to slaughter, a place to buy meat and there will be production centers where you can access every time,” he said.
Njundu Fatty, CEO of Supersonicz Microfinance, also said the government of The Gambia has seen the challenges people go through to get ruminants outside the country when the fest is approaching. Adding this has led to the government introducing the project to ease the challenges and make it accessible in the country.
Islamic bank development bank is based on shariah principles to assist people to have access to finance. “To make it clear, the project is a loan. You take the loan, start up your business and pay it back.”
He, therefore, urged all the participants to pay back their loans which he said will make it easier for others to have access to the loans and for the beneficiaries to get back the loan again and hope that in 3 years the challenges will reduce if loans are properly managed by the beneficiaries.
Another speaker, DawdaKujabi, General Manager GTCCU, advised participants to invest in the loan wisely. Adding that the project is to empower youth and women, and therefore encouraged all the youth folks and women to come on board and make the best use of the project.