Project Mala 2019-2020

Our goal is to help young entrepreneurs in the Gambia to start their own business. During the 2019-2020 Project Mala, we stayed in the Gambia from November until the end of January.  We expanded the previous years’ research of the Gambian job market to the inland of the country with the aim of investigating good ways of reinforcing the entrepreneurship ambitions in the inland.

Research from prior years showed that lectures in Gambian schools are very theoretical, making it more difficult for students to independently make the step towards starting a company after graduating. Given the limited job opportunities upon graduation, numerous young Gambians emigrate to other countries in West Africa. For this reason, the 2019-2020 Project Mala aimed also at setting up a small company with a group of students and at transferring enough knowledge to the students for them about setting up and running a company. Our hope is to have given the students the fundamental practical insights they need to start their own company.

We worked hard to reach our goal in these three months. Sustainability being the greatest objective of the project, we aim to make our efforts last and be carried on over the years by the local populations. This is why our reports can be found on this website.