Asamaha

Asamaha Asamaha helps the people building The Gambia decide with the full picture.

We publish in-depth sector analysis on agriculture, finance, health, real estate, tourism, trade, and transportation.

Every time you send money home, you are doing something bigger than helping your family. You are holding up the economy....
25/08/2026

Every time you send money home, you are doing something bigger than helping your family. You are holding up the economy.

In 2024, Gambians abroad sent home a record US$775.6 million. That is now equal to somewhere between a fifth and a third of the entire Gambian economy, and it is the single largest source of foreign currency the country has. Bigger than tourism. Bigger than aid. Bigger than everything Gambia exports.

So where does all that money actually go? We pulled the Central Bank's own figures:

- Over half goes into construction, land and houses.
- More than a third covers daily living, food, rent, school fees.
- The rest goes to savings and emergencies.

We also asked the harder question nobody likes to raise: what happens to a country that depends this heavily on money sent from abroad, and could that money be building even more than it already does?

We broke the whole thing down, honestly, in a new piece on the site.

Read it here: www.asamaha.com/articles/remittances-gambia-gdp-diaspora

If you send money home, what is the main thing it goes toward? Tell us below.

Six in ten Gambians are under the age of 25. That is not just a statistic, it is a market structure. It tells you who is...
14/08/2026

Six in ten Gambians are under the age of 25. That is not just a statistic, it is a market structure. It tells you who is hiring, who is buying, who is migrating, and who is online.

It also tells you why the same product priced differently for young and older customers will perform very differently.

How does your business serve under-25s?

He wants to grow. Feed prices are slowing down. Demand is uneven. The classic founder dilemma: scale capacity or fix sal...
12/08/2026

He wants to grow. Feed prices are slowing down. Demand is uneven.

The classic founder dilemma: scale capacity or fix sales first? In the Gambian context, what would you recommend, and why?

You can also follow on Instagram to see more.
12/08/2026

You can also follow on Instagram to see more.

A D200,000 container of dry goods can cost another D100,000 to clear before it leaves the gate. That is roughly half the...
03/08/2026

A D200,000 container of dry goods can cost another D100,000 to clear before it leaves the gate. That is roughly half the shipment's value again, added before a single item is sold. Most first-time importers do not budget for it.

We walked through the actual line items for a 20-foot container: duty, ECOWAS levy, processing fee, VAT, port charges, and the clearing agent. Swipe through to see where each dalasi goes.

One thing to keep in mind. These figures are indicative, built from published GRA, GPA, and ECOWAS rates plus interviews with Banjul customs brokers. Your real cost will vary with the goods, the HS code, the CIF value, and how quickly you clear. Miss the free storage days and demurrage alone can change the picture.

If you have cleared goods at Banjul Port, what surprised you most, the duty, the VAT stack, or the port charges?

These figures are indicative and current as of 2026. Rates change. Always confirm with your clearing agent or GRA before you budget.

Her DMs are full. Her inbox is alive. Her bank account is quiet. Plenty of inquiries, very few payments. Trust and conve...
30/07/2026

Her DMs are full.

Her inbox is alive. Her bank account is quiet. Plenty of inquiries, very few payments. Trust and conversion are different problems with different fixes.

What is the one move you would tell her to make to turn chat into cash?

$20 is one lunch in New York. In London it is a sandwich and the Tube home. In Berlin it barely covers a döner, a coffee...
27/07/2026

$20 is one lunch in New York. In London it is a sandwich and the Tube home. In Berlin it barely covers a döner, a coffee and a ticket. In Lagos it is a market run. In Banjul, the same money fills a grocery bag and feeds a family for days.

That gap is the entire reason remittances work. It is also why expectations from home can feel so far from the reality you live abroad. Same money, very different lives.

What does $20 get you where you are? Tell us in the comments.

A decade ago, fewer than 1 in 5 Gambians used the internet. Today the number is approaching 1 in 2. What does that mean ...
25/07/2026

A decade ago, fewer than 1 in 5 Gambians used the internet.

Today the number is approaching 1 in 2. What does that mean in practice? It means the addressable market for any digital product just doubled, and your customer's first stop is no longer a friend, it is a search bar.

Are you reaching customers online yet, or still relying on word of mouth?

He sent the money. His brother runs the restaurant.Six months in, nobody can tell where the business ends and the family...
23/07/2026

He sent the money. His brother runs the restaurant.

Six months in, nobody can tell where the business ends and the family budget begins. This is one of the most common diaspora-funded business problems we hear about.

What system should they put in place first? Tell us in the comments.

A Zambian economist argued that a trillion dollars of aid did more harm to Africa than good. Then she offered a differen...
20/07/2026

A Zambian economist argued that a trillion dollars of aid did more harm to Africa than good. Then she offered a different roadmap. Some of it sounds a lot like what the Gambian diaspora already does.

Dambisa Moyo's Dead Aid is one of those books that changes how you read every headline about development that comes after it.

Her core claim is blunt: decades of foreign aid to Africa have not delivered the growth they promised, and in her view have often fed dependency and weakened accountability. You do not have to agree with all of it. Plenty of serious economists don't. But the argument is worth wrestling with.

What makes it land for us: the alternatives Moyo points to are trade, private investment, access to capital, and remittances. In other words, the diaspora sending money home, and Gambians building businesses rather than waiting on grants, are part of the very roadmap she describes.

Read it, argue with it, take what is useful. That is how the best books work.

Have you read Dead Aid? And do you buy her argument, that Africa would be better off with less aid and more investment, or is that too blunt for the real world?

Bookmark this for the week.

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