Ebrima Sawaneh

The Diaspora Direct Investment (DDI) in Productive Sectors project was undertaken by Diaspora Fellow Ebrima Sawaneh under the Diaspora Investment and Livelihoods sector.  The assignment sought to facilitate diaspora investment through the Gambia Angel Investment Network while providing business and investment training and mentoring to entrepreneurs.

Over the course of the assignment, the Fellow co-founded and organized the inaugural CFO Conference in The Gambia, supported Quick Cook Ltd through investor-readiness work, provided free access to Future CFO online courses, created digital SME awareness content, and delivered finance and accounting system advisory to Kerr Finder, Ecomed and Pasma Company, a diaspora-founded enterprise. The work was delivered in collaboration with I-Grow Venture, GAIN members, government and regulatory representatives, banks, private companies, the University of The Gambia through ECOMANSA, and finance professionals such as Pa Malick Bah. 

The assignment produced a range of quantitative and qualitative results. The inaugural CFO Conference attracted nearly 200 participants, including senior government officials, finance leaders, bank CEOs, SMEs, professionals and students, creating a national platform for learning, networking and public-private dialogue, with 14 survey respondents giving it an average satisfaction rating of 4.5 out of 5. Quick Cook’s revised pitch deck and financial plan were completed, approximately 13 hours of mentoring and advisory support were provided, and a term sheet was prepared for its proposed D1 million capital raise from Gambia Angel Network investors. The Future CFO platform enrolled six new learners, published an SME digital-awareness video and began developing three practical finance courses. Mentoring was provided to three mentees, two female and one male, with two aged between 22 and 36 and one over 36, while the conference trained 200 participants, 80 female and 120 male, across topics including taxation, regulation and ESG matters in The Gambia, talent, transformation and purpose in career management, and public-private partnerships and impact investing.