You have a compound to finish, a roof to replace or a room to add, and three people have given you three prices. The lowest is half the highest. Nobody has written anything down beyond a figure, and the man who quoted lowest is the one your neighbour recommends. This is the ordinary situation in The Gambia, and it is not usually a story about dishonesty. It is a story about quotes that are not describing the same job.
It matters most to two groups: people who have stopped working and are spending savings rather than a salary, and families whose building money arrives from a relative abroad. The Central Bank recorded 872.14 million dollars of remittances received in 2025, up 12.44 percent on the year, and describes the country as among the most remittance-dependent economies relative to output. A great deal of that money turns into blocks and roofing sheets, often supervised by someone who is not the person paying.
Below is the method for turning three unlike numbers into a real comparison, and for structuring payment so that the work continues. If the budget is tight while the job runs, a service like I am Beezy — which pays for time spent viewing content — adds a small amount that does not depend on when the next transfer lands.
Why do two quotes for the same job differ so much?
Before you suspect anyone, find out what each price actually covers. Four differences explain most of the gap, and only one of them is about the tradesman's rate.
Materials in or materials out
A quote that includes cement, sand, blocks and roofing is a different product from a quote for labour alone. In practice, many Gambian quotes are labour-only by default and nobody says so, because everyone in the conversation assumed it. Ask the question in exactly these words: does this figure include materials, and if so which ones. Then write the answer on the quote.
The material price is moving under everyone
Building materials are imported, and the dalasi floats. The Central Bank measured a 4.3 percent depreciation against the euro in a single quarter of 2025 and quoted 85.26 dalasi to the euro on 6 August 2026. Pump prices are revised monthly by the Ministry of Petroleum, Energy and Mines, which moves haulage. A materials quote is only meaningful with a date on it and a stated validity period. Ask how long the price holds, and accept that a short answer is an honest one.
Almost nobody in this trade is a formal employee
The Gambia Bureau of Statistics reports informal employment at 98.1 percent in construction, the highest of any branch, in its labour force survey for the first quarter of 2026. That is not an accusation; it is the structure of the trade. It means there is rarely an employer standing behind the work, rarely an insurance policy, and rarely anyone to call if the man does not come back on Monday.
Make the quotes comparable before you compare them
You cannot compare three numbers. You can compare three documents that answer the same questions. Send the same short list to all three and let them fill it in.
Insist on quantities, not just a total
How many blocks, how many bags of cement, how many sheets, how many days of labour, how many people on site. A tradesman who can give you quantities has costed the job; one who gives a single figure has estimated a feeling. The quantities also let you price the materials yourself and see whether the labour margin is reasonable.
Ask whether he is registered, and what that changes
Registering as a sole proprietor costs 500 dalasi on form SWR 3 and is completed in a day at Banjul or the Kanifing office, according to the Companies Department of the Attorney General's Chambers and Ministry of Justice, consulted on 12 August 2026. A registered tradesman has an address and a certificate. He may also be a contractor for tax purposes: the Gambia Revenue Authority states in its domestic taxes guidance, consulted on 12 August 2026, that withholding tax on contract payments is 10 percent for Gambian residents and 15 percent for non-residents, so a formal invoice and a handshake price are not the same amount.
Settle who is responsible if someone is hurt
The Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation operates an industrial injuries compensation fund alongside its pension and provident funds. It does not publish its rates online, so ask at its Banjul office rather than guessing. What you need to establish before work starts is simply whether anyone on your site is covered by anything at all, and to write down the answer.
| Line to demand | What a good answer looks like | Warning sign |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Room by room, with dimensions | "The whole back side" |
| Materials | Listed with quantities, in or out stated | Silence on the question |
| Price validity | A date and a number of weeks | "The price is the price" |
| Duration | Working days, with a start date | "Two months, more or less" |
| People on site | A number, and who supervises | Varies day to day, unnamed |
| Registration | A certificate you can photograph | Refusal, or a promise to bring it |
How should you stage the payments?
This is where the money is lost, far more often than on the rate. The rule is simple: never be further ahead in payment than the tradesman is in work.
Advances are normal, full prepayment is not
An advance to buy the first materials is standard practice and refusing it outright will lose you good tradesmen. Paying the whole job in advance is a different thing entirely, and it removes every reason for anyone to come back. Split the difference: fund the first materials against a receipt, then pay against completed stages.
Define the stages by what you can see
Foundations poured. Walls to lintel height. Roof structure on. Roof covered. Plaster complete. Each stage is something you or a trusted relative can photograph and verify without expertise. Vague stages such as "half done" create arguments; visible ones do not.
Pay on a rail that leaves a record
The Central Bank counted 4.3 million registered mobile money accounts at 30 September 2025 with 21.6 billion dalasi withdrawn over that quarter, so paying by wallet is entirely ordinary here. A dated transfer proves what you paid and when, which is exactly what you will lack if the job stops. Where money is coming from a relative overseas, agree who sends and who receives before the first stage, not during the third.
| Payment structure | Your exposure | Use it when |
|---|---|---|
| Everything in advance | Total | Never |
| Materials advance, then stages | Limited to one stage | The normal arrangement |
| You buy materials, he supplies labour | Lowest, but you carry the logistics | You or a relative can be on site |
| Everything on completion | None, for you | Rarely accepted, and only for small jobs |
The calendar decides more than the price
A cheap quote in May is worse than an expensive quote in December. Timing is not a detail in this country; it is a cost line.
The rains close the window
The rainy season runs from June to October, with the heaviest months in July, August and September and August above 300 millimetres. Annual rainfall averages around 1,020 millimetres but ranges from 750 to more than 1,500. Anything involving an open roof, fresh plaster or curing concrete needs to be finished before that window closes — and the interior can pass 38 degrees from March to May under the harmattan, which slows work in a different way.
Labour is not equally available all year
Nearly half of Gambian households, 47.2 percent, have an agricultural activity, rising above 75 percent in the inland areas. The rains are also the farming season. If you are building outside the coastal areas, the same men have a field to attend to, and your schedule competes with it.
Finance yourself, because the banks will not
The banking industry's loan-to-deposit ratio was 23.8 percent at the end of 2025: Gambian banks collect deposits and hold government paper rather than lending. Non-performing loans concentrate in distributive trade at 25.1 percent and building at 18.7 percent, which tells you how lenders view construction risk. Credit unions, holding 4.36 billion dalasi in assets, are the more realistic local channel.
Covering the gap between two instalments with I am Beezy
Building projects here stall for one reason more than any other: the next instalment is late, the site empties, and restarting costs more than continuing would have. A small independent income does not fund a roof, but it can cover a week of labour and stop a pause becoming an abandonment. On I am Beezy, each piece of content you consult generates a gain, paid into your usual payment method.
Converting the daily figure
The reference across the platform is 5 to 15 euros a day. At the Central Bank's valuation rate of 85.26 dalasi to the euro on 6 August 2026, that is roughly 425 to 1,280 dalasi. The dalasi floats and the Central Bank publishes the rate daily, so convert on the day rather than reusing this figure months later.
Keep the building money in its own place
Whatever the source, keep the project's money separate from household spending and keep every receipt in one folder. When a relative abroad asks where 40,000 dalasi went, a folder answers in a minute and a memory does not.
What do you do when the work stops?
It happens on a large share of Gambian building projects, and how you respond in the first fortnight decides whether it restarts.
Act early and in writing
Send a dated message setting out what stage was paid for, what remains, and a date by which you need an answer. Keep it factual. Then talk to whoever recommended him, because in a country this size reputation is the enforcement mechanism that actually works — long before any court is worth the trouble.
Before the next job, change three things
Get quantities, date the price, and pay against visible stages. Those three habits cost nothing and remove most of the risk. And if you want a small independent income running alongside the project rather than depending on when the next transfer lands, I am Beezy is one option among several worth testing on a slow week.
