Gambia: Vast investment opportunities but inaccessible by private sector

Economic operators in The Gambia have noted that the country has vast opportunities for investment but government stance of not opening up for intervention into some strategic areas by the private sector has hindered the ability to make more investments in such areas.

Some of the vital sectors for investment have been tried in vain by members of the private sector due to government’s protectionism, which makes it difficult for investor capital to find their way into them.

Mr Touray

For instance, the major infrastructural sectors are really not open to private sector participation, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), Abdoulie Baks Touray, has said in an interview with this paper.

Mr Touray observed that one of the key areas the government has refused to open up for private sector participation is the ferry services. 

Some time ago, he noted, some members of the private sector including himself did a feasibility study for possible investment in sea transport, such as ferry services, and found out that there are untapped potentials in this area the private sector can explore.

But, according to the business and financial analyst, they were later made to understand that ferry services is a no-go area for the private sector. “It is reserved for the public sector intervention,” Mr Touray said.

Gov’t urged to establish stock exchange market

Abdoulie Baks Touray, president of American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), has said many big corporations around the world today started as a sole ownership and end up coming together to form big businesses with diverse ownerships through established and organised stock exchanges.

Mr Touray

He says if the government could first create the legal instrument for its existence, a stock exchange market would greatly help in turning small businesses into giant corporations that would drive the Gambian economy into the likes of Singapore and other emerging economies and industrialised  nations.  It would also create space for a fluid financial and capital market.

Explaining an instance by which small businesses can become big corporations through the stock exchange market, Mr Touray said: “For instance, you came in as an individual to start MarketPlace newspaper; later on you realised that you need to expand the business, so you go to the stock exchange market to float your shares for interested investors to take ownership then the business becomes an ‘invisible hand’, a corporation that is largely beyond the control of individual firms.” 

He also cited the case of Henry Fords, founder of Ford Motor Company, who started the company as an individual but later floated its shares in a stock exchange and people took ownership of it and the company became an ‘invisible hand’.