Gambia VEEP Commissions Rlg Plant�Announces 5yr Tax Waiver

The Gambian Vice President, Aja Dr Isatou Njie Saidy, has commissioned the country�s first ever ICT Devices Assembly Plant Complex owned by Rlg Communications Ltd in Serekunda near the capital Banjul over the weekend with an announcement that her government had granted Rlg a 5 year tax holiday. The Plant cost $ 500,000 bringing the total cost of Rlg�s investment in the West African state to $7.5 million since 2009. The plant complex has two training centers, an ultra modern showroom, a two-line state-of-the art production plant capable of producing 500 phones a day and 200 laptops on daily basis as well as after sales and repair facilities. Scores of people including an array of dignitaries from the Gambia, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Liberia witnessed the historic ceremony watched by a large number of elated ordinary Gambians. The commissioning ceremony of the RLG Assembly Plant and Showroom mark the official commencement of commercial business by Rlg in the Gambia. As many as eight Gambian ministers, many of whom with cabinet ranks were present as well as a delegation from the National Communication Commission of Sierra Leone and the World Bank office in Freetown who are seeking to support Rlg to replicate the investment in the war ravaged country. The event will also saw the graduation of thirty trainees of the youth-in �ICT training programme which is been run by Rlg Communications Gambia and the The Gambia Priority Employment Programme (Gamjobs) under the Gambian Ministry of Trade, Regional Integration and Employment. Rlg has been operating in the Gambia since 2009, implementing a project to train Gambian youth in ICT with support from the Gambian government. Vice President Saidy told the ceremony the Gambian government has taken a decision to grant a 5-year tax moratorium to Rlg in view of the crucial social impact implications of their training and job creation interventions in the Gambia. She said by moratorium, Rlg will have taxes on Mobile Phones and Computer parts imported waved under a special corporate tax certificate issued to the Ghanaian company. �This facility will forever deepen Gambia-Ghana diplomatic, bilateral and economic relations which has existed for many years and also give real meaning to the ECOWAS regional integration agenda�, she told gathering. The commissioning of the Plant brings to two the number of such facilities in West Africa after the one in Accra and it comes few months ahead of the opening of similar facility in the Nigerian state of Oshun where Rlg is also working with the federal government to empower the youth through entrepreneurship and ICT training. The Gambian Minister for Trade, Industry, Regional Integration and Employment, Kebba Touray, assured Gambian youths of more social interventions and schemes to address youth unemployment. The Minister for Information and Communication Infrastructure, Nana Grey-Johnson said the setting of this plant will provide us with the trained manpower needed to drive our ICT agenda and also offer us choices in the world of ICT Devices. He appealed to Rlg to consider relocating its head offices from Ghana to the Gambia. The Minister for Basic and Secondary Education of the Gambia, Fatou Lamin Faye said the facility would enhance education delivery especially at technical level.