By Dawda Baldeh
Prominent Gambian entrepreneur and mentor Njie Charakh has visited the Brikama market to engage with aspiring entrepreneurs, discussing plans to promote their products at national and international levels.
This move came barely a week after launching ‘Made in the Gambia’ products manufactured from raw materials by Gambian women and girls.
Njie, the CEO of Njie Charakh World Market, noted that as an entrepreneur, he stressed the importance of supporting one another in the booming market.
In Brikama Dasilameh, a group of women are excelling at producing salt named “Worfbi Natural Sea Salt” that they extract from the sea.
They refine the salt extracted from the sea and process it to make it meet the standard.
Speaking to reporters during the visit on Monday, Amina Njie, a member of the salt producers stated the importance of the salt.
“This salt is special and is good for health because it contains iodized which helps create hormones that retailed teary rate and blood pressure,” she said.
She also speaks about the packaging process of the salt, which she noted makes it unique.
These women are Fatou Badjie, Haddy Njie-Jatta, and Anima Njie, who import the raw salt from Senegal and reprocess it.
“This salt is safe for all to use,” Mrs. Njie added.
The women also expressed their profound gratitude to Njie for his visit which they say is crucial in helping them to reach a wider market.
After touring various places in the market and interacting with various women entrepreneurs, Njie emphasized the need for Gambian women to be supported in their daily activities.
He underscored the importance of entrepreneurship in ensuring financial independence for the development of the country.
“We want to make sure these homemade products reach everywhere in the world.
“The women entrepreneurs need support, so we are out to make sure we support them to market their products,” he said.
He noted that providing women with the opportunity to access the market is crucial to helping them grow their businesses.
For Njie, no matter what the women produced, if they don’t have the market their businesses will never grow.
He also encouraged the women to never give up in their daily entrepreneurial efforts to change the narrative.
“Our women and girls are manufacturing most the of the products we used to import and if we support them, they will make a huge impact in our country,” he noted.
Meanwhile, Pa Ndey Mbye, a prominent Star FM radio talk show host, praised Njie for his unwavering commitment to supporting women entrepreneurs in the country.
“This is commendable. If Gambi has many people like Njie, this country will move forward,” he said.
Pa also expressed his impression of the products Gambian women continued to produce which were previously imported.
“These homemade products are very good, and they are healthy,” he added.
He encouraged people to adopt the habit of embracing homemade products, saying they are healthier.
“Let’s support our sisters and mothers who are making these products to regain our health as we heavily depend on imported products which often have chemicals that have health effects,” he noted.
Njie Charakh has dedicated a special section in his training centre for homemade products to help promote locally produced products.
“Gambian women are not lazy, but they lack the necessary support to grow,” he emphasized.
