Barring any last minute technical changes, the people of the West African state of The Gambia will witness history when the first ever ICT Assembly Plant is commissioned this Saturday, June 8. The commissioning ceremony of the RLG Assembly Plant and Showroom will also mark the official commencement of commercial business by Rlg in The Gambia. The event will also see thirty trainees of the youth-in –ICT training programme pass out at a ceremony to be attended by several ministers of the Gambian government, Ghana government officials as well as delegations representing governments of neighboring countries as well as officials from the United Nations and other development agencies. Rlg has been operating in the Gambia since 2009, implementing a project to train Gambian youth in ICT with support from the Gambian government. Ahead of Saturday’s ceremony, the company’s products including mobile phones and laptops have already become the toast of many Gambians especially those in the capital city of Banjul. The commissioning of the Plant brings to two the number of such facilities in West Africa 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. Ghana has similar Assembly Plant. “We are particularly excited because this has not happened in our country before”, says Papa Yusupha Njie, Country Director of Rlg Gambia. The ultra-modern plant has a state-of-the art showroom, training centers, after sales and repair facilities and two assembly lines capable of producing 500 phones a day and 200 laptops on daily basis. Rlg has so far invested more than 7 million dollars in the local Gambian economy and is seen by the government of The Gambia as a major strategic stakeholder in employment generation and provision social services. The company also intends using the Gambian success as springboard to enter neighboring Sierra Leone, Senegal and Liberia.