GYIN Gambia Rural Youth Award Winners off to Senegal

Ms. Yama NDIAYE, Director General of WA YAbi Distribution

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 26^th – 31^st 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.

GYIN Gambia to Hold 3rd Rural Youth Award in Wuli, URR

The Global Youth Innovation Network (GYIN) Gambia chapter is to hold its 3rd Edition of the Rural Youth Award (RYA) in Wuli West, Upper River Region on 27^th April, 2019.

The award recognises and celebrates the achievements of rural youths in entrepreneurship and agribusiness. This year’s theme is “Discovering rural value chain by putting young people in agricultural value addition.”

The award provides financial support to deserving agribusiness players to not only grow their business, but serves as an encouragement for them and others to stay in agriculture and contribute to increasing food security, and at the same time enjoy the benefits of running their own businesses.

The 2019 award winners are to receive each a cash prize of D35, 000 plus a six-month mentorship.

GYIN Gambia ELIT 2017: Expanding Youth Development through Entrepreneurial Mentorship

Churchill’s Town, The Gambia – The Global Youth Innovation Network Gambia Chapter (GYIN Gambia) will hold its 2^nd Edition of the National Youth Summer Camp from July 23-August 1, 2017.

                             

This year’s Entrepreneurship, Leadership, Information and Technology (ELIT 2017) Summer Camp will allow young people to become rural mentors in their own regions as well as other regions in the country.

The 10-day event will hold under the theme –ELIT 2017: Expanding Youth Development through Entrepreneurial Mentorship. It is aimed at establishing a rural mentorship programme; sharing knowledge and experience on entrepreneurship, agribusiness and youth development issues; seeking business opportunities and networking; and to design a rural youth employment survey plan.

Activities will take the form of conferences, individual and group presentations, quizzes, comedy, culture; field visits to agricultural project sites (rice and poultry farms), markets; and case studies on youth mentorship programmes.

Governor Puye tells youth: Seek funding and you will be assisted

Governor Salifu Puy, Lower River Region at the closing ceremony

“Seek for funding at the regional and national levels and you will be assisted,” the  Governor of Lower River Region (LRR), Salieu Puye, told Gambian youth last week. 

 

While presiding over the closing of GYIN Gambia ELIT 2016 summer camp on July 31 at Jenoi village in LRR, Governor Puye said the youth should start-up businesses and be persistent in it.

“Let us stay there for a while, learn some theories, learn from our mistakes and then correct it for the future. Try to build partnership among yourselves like other countries are doing and you build yourselves into a vibrant private sector-led business in this country,” he further said.

The regional governor said at regional level, there are small grants from FASDEP, CILIP, and NEMA projects that the youth can benefit from. 

ELIT 2016: GYIN GAMBIA Announces 1st Edition of National Summer Camp

Churchill’s Town, The Gambia – The Global Youth Innovation Network Gambia Chapter (GYIN Gambia) has today announced it will be holding a National Youth Summer Camp from July 24-31, 2016 in Jenoi, Lower River Region (LRR).

The first edition of the National Summer Camp known as “The Entrepreneurship, Leadership and Information and Technology (ELIT 2016) Summer Camp” will allow rural youths to demonstrate their abilities, plans and share among themselves, experiences in their various initiatives and ventures.

The one week event to be hosted at the Rural Farmers Training Centre will take the form of individual and group presentations, quiz, comedy, culture, etc with field visits to various locations such as agricultural project sites, cultural sites and markets. Forty (40) participants from across the six agricultural directorates are to participate in the event.

GYIN Gambia launches CORY Consortium 3 year project

GYIN Gambia CORY National Orientation Workshop Participnats

The CORY project is a new initiative that supports young rural women and men in West and Central Africa to become entrepreneurs.  Over its 3-year implementation period (2014-2017), the CORY project will focus on rural young women and men, ages 15-35 years, who are involved in agriculture production or activities associated with rural business. 

GYIN Gambia chapter together with National Implementing Partners- Jarumeh Koto Youth Development Association, Gambia Women Finance Association (GAWFA), Village Savings and Credit Associations (VISACAs) on the 8^th -9^th July at Ocean Bay Hotel launched the CORY project.

The project also targets rural youth institutions for business training, advocacy, networking and knowledge exchange – all with a 1:1 female-male ratio.

Mamadou Edrisa Njie GYIN Gambia National Coordinator said by capitalizing on innovative ideas and taking into account the wishes and desires of many rural young women and men, the network recognized the need to provide a continuous “space” by establishing a platform now known as GYIN International.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND LEADERSHIP SKILLS WORKSHOP FOR GAMBIAN YOUTH

Participants

The U.S. Embassy Banjul, in partnership with the American Chamber of Commerce, hosted a three-day entrepreneurship workshop in Fajara from 31 March to 2 April 2014 for 30 Gambian men and women under the age of 35. During the workshop, participants from the Young Entrepreneurs Association (YEA), Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), Gambia Import and Export Promotion Agency (GIEPA), and the American Chamber of Commerce received hands-on training on developing product ideas and business plans.

The workshop was conducted by Mr. Juan Casimiro, a Dominican-American businessman, who has conducted entrepreneurship and leadership workshops all over the world. Mr. Casimiro motivated the youth to become community leaders, small business owners, and to create jobs in The Gambia. He also shared his own motivational stories and best practices, which helped participants develop their own ideas for products, services, and business plans. The workshop bolstered the skills of the participants to become entrepreneurs and he gave them the added confidence needed to start their own businesses.

“HAVING YOUR OWN ENTREPRISE REWARDS MORE”- CU Consultant Tulinabo

Mr. Aloysius Tulinabo Consultant CU-Gambia

Mr. Aloysius Tulinabo Consultant Concern Universal-Gambia (CU-Gambia) ascertain that for someone to have his or her own enterprise rewards more, by justifying his words, he said that entrepreneurship offers a greater possibility of achieving significant financial rewards than working for someone.

Making a PowerPoint presentation at a four days training (2^nd to 5^th Dec.) on Entrepreneurship for MDFT members at the Agricultural Rural Training Centre at Jenoi in the Lower River Region

He defines entrepreneurship as someone who engages in the creation of new business with the aim of achieving “success, growth and profit”.