Entrepreneurship support institutions are facing challenges in the way they provide assistance to entrepreneurs. Many are not able to meet the growing expectations and needs of entrepreneurs in the country. Navigating through an ecosystem of unconnected organizations can be complex and discouraging. In the long run, it is likely to take multiple institutions to achieve start-up success: from idea to growth to internationalization. Building skills, entrepreneurial behaviour, funding and networks is essential to start-up success and cannot be provided by one institution alone.  

Entrepreneurial ecosystems emerge as the result of a multitude of entities and actors interacting in highly complex and idiosyncratic ways. Implementing and accelerating entrepreneurship ecosystems is central to unleashing the potential of young entrepreneurs.  

Ecosystems can be studied through a variety of approaches. This report uses ITC’s methodology to capture the characteristics and connections of the institutions active in the entrepreneurship ecosystem in The Gambia. The objective of this report is to provide an accurate description of The Gambia’s entrepreneurship ecosystem of institutions, identify gaps, overlaps and provide recommendations.

This is achieved through a comprehensive analysis, which starts with an initial mapping of the overall ecosystem and aims to gauge the types of support provided by institutions to entrepreneurs at different stages of the business lifecycle. Secondly, delving deeper, a network analysis is conducted to observe the types of linkages or collaborations that occur between various organizations in the entrepreneurship ecosystem. This network analysis does not only show the connections between actors but can also identify which institutions are highly connected. Finally, complementing the institutional perspective, entrepreneurs or the “users” of the ecosystem are asked to share their insights