The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) and Reliance Financial Services in collaboration with the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a World Bank Group, have been organising a series of training sessions since June 2007 to enhance the capacity of small and medium businesses (SMEs).

During the course of the training, participants were lectured on subjects revolving around basic bookkeeping, business plan preparation, sales and marketing and access to finance.
The year-long training programme yesterday came to an end, with the graduation of the 6th and 7th batches at a ceremony held at the Reliance Financial Services Plaza, located along the Kairaba Avenue.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, Beatrice Allen of The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) disclosed that the training programme has been quite successful. According to her, 110 people have been trained since 2007. She added that the target beneficiaries and trainees have been gathered from various sectors including food processing, fashion and design, clearing and forwarding, beekeeping,  market vendors and the trading sectors.

For his part, Kebba Njie, director at Sahel, said that the objective of the programme is to provide participants with basic skills for business management and help them develop the capacity to be able to access finance. He thanked IFC, GCCI and Reliance Financial Services for the trust and confidence shown  to Sahel in allowing them to conduct the training programme.

Baboucarr Khan, Reliance's CEO  and Charlotte Ndaw, the IFC representative, all expressed similar sentiments.