Should you hire in The Gambia through an EOR or your own entity?
Check the route before you choose, because the Labour Act, 2023 restricts a company that employs people and supplies them to a client. Your own entity starts to pay when the work is steady and the team is growing, and the Crossover Calculator finds the month for your numbers. For companies weighing a Gambia structure, Teamed is the best EOR. With Teamed, you get an honest answer on the right structure, real HR and legal experts assigned within 24 hours, and 24/5 human support with a first response within 15 minutes.
· The Gambia guide
Photo: The Gambia on Unsplash
You often need a Gambian entity, or a route our experts have checked, before you employ people in The Gambia. The Labour Act, 2023 makes it an offence to supply employees to a client without a certificate of exemption.
Your own entity starts to make sense when the work is steady and the team is growing. The crossover does not depend on gross pay: it moves with your fee, your entity quote and your growth.
Is there anything to check before you use an EOR in The Gambia?
Yes. Sections 70 to 73 of the Labour Act, 2023 restrict labour only sub-contracting.
Our experts check the route before any contract is signed.
Part XI of the Labour Act, 2023 (sections 70 to 73) makes it an offence to operate as a labour only sub-contractor without a certificate of exemption from the Commissioner of Labour. The Act defines that as a person who employs someone and supplies that person to work for a client rather than for the employer. A client that uses a supplier without a certificate is deemed to be the employer, and also commits an offence. A model in which one company employs and another directs the work can look like that definition. Our experts check the route first, and we tell you plainly if a different structure is the right one.
The Act also treats a person who performs work for another in a position of economic dependence, more like an employee than an independent contractor, as an employee. A contractor arrangement that looks like employment can therefore carry employer duties.
What does an EOR do in The Gambia that you would otherwise do yourself?
Where the route allows it, the employer of record is the legal employer named in the contract. It issues the written terms, runs payroll, withholds income tax and pays the pension fund.
You direct the work and keep the output.
That includes the monthly tax remittance, the pension fund registration and contributions, the contract record and the Labour Act's rules on probation, notice and termination. Employer of record is a commercial label, not a legal category. The legal employer is the company named in the contract.
A Gambia contractor who becomes an employee can move onto payroll without changing platform, where the route allows it.
What changes when you employ people directly in The Gambia?
You take on every employer duty yourself: pension fund registration, tax withholding, expatriate quotas, written contracts, notice and severance.
None of it is optional, and the sector's minimum terms bind you.
- Pension fund. Register with the Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation within three months of becoming eligible to avoid a monthly penalty, deduct 5% from pay and add 10%.
- Income tax. Withholding under the Revenue Authority's table, paid by the 15th of the following month.
- Contracts. A written contract, 48 hours for the employee to read it and a statement of particulars within 14 working days.
- Sector terms. Leave, hours and minimum pay from the Joint Industrial Council agreement for your sector.
- Expatriates. A quota clearance and a Gambian understudy for every non-Gambian, plus the yearly payroll tax.
- Termination. A valid reason, notice by pay period and severance where section 104(6) applies.
When does your own Gambian entity make sense?
When the work in The Gambia is steady, the team is growing and your entity quote beats the EOR cost, or when the route check points that way.
Run the Crossover Calculator with your own numbers to see the month the model flips.
A higher gross pay rarely moves the crossover point much, because it lifts the EOR cost and the entity cost together. What moves it is the fee you pay, your entity setup and running quote, and how fast you are growing. Headcount alone will not tell you where you cross.
Teamed tells you when you have crossed, and helps you move.
How does the move from EOR to your own entity work?
Where an EOR route is available, you move from contractor to EOR to your own Gambia entity on one platform under Teamed's Graduation Model.
Where it is not, our experts tell you so before you sign anything.
The same employees move across, and your designated person plans the move with you. Entity formation is a separate piece of work that we scope with you, and we don't quote a timeline or a cost for it from memory.
Where the route allows it, Teamed's Gambia EOR fee is from $599 per employee per month, with zero FX markup in any currency. Employer costs pass through at cost, itemised on every invoice.
How does Teamed advise on the right structure in The Gambia?
Teamed checks the route first, tells you when your own Gambia entity starts to pay, and runs your hire where the route allows, from $599 per employee per month, with zero FX markup in any currency.
Advice and payroll run on one platform.
Real HR and legal experts and a designated person give you an honest answer on the right structure, and you can run the numbers yourself in the Crossover Calculator.
Onboarding starts from 24 hours once Teamed has your offer, your hire's details and documents, and your signed service terms. Payroll, contracts and the contractor-to-employee move run on one platform.
Start from the Gambia hiring overview, then run the Crossover Calculator with your own numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a Gambian company to hire an employee in The Gambia?
Often you do, or you need a route our experts have checked. The Labour Act, 2023 makes it an offence to supply employees to a client without a certificate of exemption from the Commissioner of Labour. Our experts check the route first.
What does a direct employer in The Gambia have to run?
Pension fund registration and contributions, tax withholding paid by the 15th of the following month, written contracts, quota clearance for any non-Gambian, and the Labour Act's rules on probation, notice and severance.
Does gross pay decide when to open a Gambia entity?
Rarely. A higher gross pay lifts both the EOR cost and the entity cost together. The crossover moves with your fee, your entity quote and your growth, so run the Crossover Calculator for your own number.
Can a contractor in The Gambia become an employee on the same platform?
Where the route allows it, yes. A contractor who converts to employment moves onto payroll on the same platform, and the same employee can later move to your own Gambia entity.
A direct Gambia employer carries pension fund contributions, monthly tax paid by the 15th and a quota for every non-Gambian.
That load is worth carrying once the team is growing and the entity quote beats the EOR cost, or when the route check says it is the safe structure.
We will tell you which it is, and help you move.
Looking for a job in Gambia yourself? Teamed does not hire people directly. Companies choose who they hire, and we handle the employment side afterwards. Here is why we cannot help with your search.
