GAMBIA open for business Moukhtara Holding Co. Ltd Interview with: Mr. Sayed Moukhtara, Managing Director and CEO Contact: 10, Moukhatra Street Kanifing Industrial Estate P.O. Box 447 Banjul, The Gambia Tel: (220) 392574 / 392512 Fax: (220) 393085 E-mail: moukhtara.Gambia@gamtel.gm October 24th, 2000 Moukhtara Holding Co. is known for its six affiliated companies, involved in various sectors in The Gambian industry. As it is your first interview for Forbes Global Magazine, would you please give us an historical background of Moukhtara Holding Co.? Moukhtara Holding Co. is specialized in light manufacturing. We have been in operation since 1975. We had some industrial activities that we stopped since. One of them was fish processing that we started in 1975 till 1979. We were drying and salting fish that we exported to Congo. We also bottled soft drinks on a small scale for a period of 6 years. Otherwise, all the other manufacturing lines that we initiated are still running. Our products are all synonymous with top quality. These are: Sweets, Stationary and educational books, Timber, Bricks, Cosmetics, Plastics, Tissue paper. In addition to that, we have created a 125 ha plantation. Moukhtara Holding Co. is the first private institution to invest in relatively large-scale forestry project in The Gambia. Our next venture is the installation of LPG storage facility in The Gambia. We will import the gas by ocean going vessels, then pump it into our tanks. We will bottle cylinders for distribution in the market. This project will be located in our woodland. The following phase of this project will be to gradually develop the infrastructure in the property to create industrial lots for us and for new investors looking to establish light manufacturing in The Gambia. We specialize in developing local resource based activities maximizing value added in the country. We have done this since 1975. Youractivity is apparently very diversified, but could you enlighten us on your diversification strategy? We find synergy between one activity and the other. We always make sure that one service supports the other as much as possible. We look at products that have specific advantages. For example, in the case of toilet paper production: This product is very costly in terms of logistics and transportation when imported from another country, because of its volume. This is the reason we have an advantage in producing it locally. Another interesting example is the brick business. It is 100% local material and marketed 100% locally. We process the clay form it in the shapes required, then we burn it. The firing process is done using the waste generated by our sawmill. We do not import fuels to fire the clay. We are also planning to develop salt production once we exhaust the clay available in our clay mine. This is one of the possible measures to mitigate the clay mining impact on the property. The clay layer is pretty shallow and it is located on the riverside. So, we intend to create collection basins where seawater is directed at high tide to produce salt by evaporation. This is how we diversify our manufacturing activities. What is Moukhtara Holding's turnover in order for our readers to get a better vision of the size of your company? We have over 30-million-Dalasi turnover per year. This is a reasonable size business in The Gambia with a population of a little over one million with a low buying power. Can you tell us how aggressive your growth strategy is? Every year we get into a new venture. This is pretty aggressive. The problem is that one cannot grow to a large scale in any single product because of the tiny market. So, we opted to diversify instead of producing for export. When a product reaches its plateau, we grow another activity besides it. You are already working with local partners. However, are you targeting new joint-ventures with local or foreign companies? We target foreign partnerships only when it is not cost effective to hire the required expertise. We have a foreign partner in our cosmetic manufacturing business exactly for the same reason. In order to be competitive, investment in new technologies becomes the main focus of many companies. To what extent have you invested in that field? Obviously, new technologies today are essential, but in here we have many hurdles to overcome in that field because of our market size. For example, in our printing industry, we are computerized, but this equipment represents a handicap because we do not have the infrastructure to maintain or service each and every printing machine properly. Each time we have a breakdown, we are out of production for an extended period of time, because we have no quick access to parts and expertise. So, I do not think we have an ideal environment for high-tech manufacturing activities yet in The Gambia. In fact, in our other activities we have made it a point to acquire simple mechanic based technology to ensure continuous output and we stayed away from electronics. How do you train and update the qualification level of your staff? So far, we have been doing training in-house. We import trainers and have part of our staff trained on site. We believe there is no point in having them trained in a foreign environment. On site training has a greater impact since trainees have direct access to their own operations, their own machines and tools. That is the reason we have been doing all our training locally. We hire the trainer from wherever possible and then we do it on site. We have recommended that the military service be used for training for industrial skills. These youngsters can be trained so that when they finish their service they can immediately become available for employment in the private sector. To your opinion, which area of your activity should need some improvement? There is always room for improvement. The quality we produce is very good, but we can always improve on it. As for our productivity, the problem is that when you start working on a larger scale, you have to gear for export where you have to compete with major markets such as Brazil, China, India or Germany. These are markets that are impossible to compete with because of their considerable sizes and their access to raw materials locally in most cases. In The Gambia, we have very limited natural and skilled human resources. According to you, how competitive is the Gambian industry and what should the Government do to boost the private sector's development? I believe the government is doing all it can to promote the private sector. The greatest constraint here is the lack of natural or human resources and the market is very small. However we have several other advantages that may be capitalized on such as: The friendliness of the Gambian people and its excellent relationship with the neighboring countries. The good weather, The English speaking language, The efficient sea and air port service, The proximity to the European market, As a more personal question, we would like to know what has been your best achievement and what is going to be a major challenge in the near future? Our best achievement is the reputation we acquired throughout the years. We are trying to become more active in the light-manufacturing sector, manufacture more products and assist others in going into manufacturing. People interested in this sector always come to us for advice. We have always done our best to guide them into the right direction. When we establish our industrial zone development, we will be in a better position to help investors to go into that market. Perhaps you would have a final message for businessmen looking at the Gambia as a potential investment destination? We are very worried about globalization. We feel that we have no chance to stand when the world markets open. We have somehow experienced that phenomenon because our customs duties are relatively lower than those of surrounding countries and that has been a major impediment for industrial development here because it is impossible to compete with imports from China, Brazil, India an others. I believe that the only way to ensure success in this market is really to focus on local resources because this is our only edge.   Read on   © World INvestment NEws, 2001. This is the electronic edition of the special country report on Gambia published in Forbes Global Magazine. May, 14th 2001 Issue. Developed by AgenciaE.Tv