This keynote addresses showcases the achievements of The Gambia in western Africa, in terms of national ICT sector policy and infrastructure. Public-private-people partnerships are the emerging model for holistic ICT development, as shown by The Gambia.

1. MINISTRY OF INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATION INFRASTRUCTURE
(MOICI)
ICT DEVELOPMENT IN THE GAMBIA
Small in number; big dreams being realised
Presented by: Khadijah Aja Tambajang
ICT Officer(Communication Affairs)
December 5th 2013

2. Country Profile – Smallest country on the continent map
Location: Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean and Senegal
Population: 1.7million
Age structure: over 34% of population under 14 years of
age
Population growth rate: 2.29% (2013 est.)
Area: 11,300 sq km
Economy dependent on agriculture, tourism and bulk
re exporting
Natural resources: fish, clay, silica sand, titanium (rutile and ilmenite), tin, zircon.
Domestic Telephone lines: combined fixed-line and mobile-cellular teledensity,
aided by four (4) mobile-cellular providers, is roughly 80 per 100 persons
Mobile and Internet facts: 85% mobile coverage in 2010, and the number of
mobile phone subscribers increased 264-fold to 1.47 million between 2000 and 2010.
 Internet access increased ten-fold from 0.92 per 100 individuals in 2000, to 9.2
individuals per 100 in 2010.
 We have six (6) ISPs

3. MOICI Profile
Our goal at MOICI is to turn The Gambia into a competitive ICT incubator and
hub, in our region, which would become an outsourcing destination and a
base for technology services, knowledge, production and development. We
would like to see a Gambia where its citizens have accessibility to connection,
be it in the health, commerce, agriculture or education sector. The surge of
ICT-based mechanisms in The Gambia in the last 11 years has proved that
our Ministry in on the right path to realizing our vision: A Gambia with the
requisite infrastructure and enabling policy framework that ensures
full connectivity of everyone to ICT services by 2015.
Our Objective
Increase investment in ICTs as a major economic activity.
Strategies
Promote the development of ICT investment i.e., manufacturing, parks etc that
respond to local and export oriented product and service requirements and to
create a strong e-government platform to mainstream development in all
sectors especially in the service delivery of government.

4. In 2010, MOICI launched its four-year strategic plan, a new framework further
advancing its ongoing commitment to provide The Gambia with advanced
telecoms infrastructure. This process was given a further boost last year with
the launch of the government’s central Programme for Accelerated Growth and
Employment (PAGE).

5. The majority of Gambians now have the
possibility to access mobile phones, radio
and television, thus we are taking it
further in pushing hard to manifest our
objectives of connecting schools around
the nation, irrespective of region or
personal affordability i.e., our ITU
funded ‘Connect a School, Connect a
Community Project,’ which we have
partnered with the Ministry of Basic and
Secondary Education in implementing.
To reach this goal, we are working
tirelessly in pushing our ongoing projects
and bringing them to fruition based on
the
National
Information
and
Communications
Infrastructure
(NICI) Plans, Policies and Strategies.
The fundamentals of the NICI are to be
the guiding framework for the diffusion
of Information and Communication
Technology
(ICT)
applications
to
accelerate the attainment of the national
development goals.

6. This falls in line with Open Access Policies that promote the mantra:
Connectivity for All! Getting Gambians connected and promoting Public
Private Partnership (PPP) via involving potential stakeholders in the affairs
of government is the way forward for us to realize our aspirations of being on
the cutting edge of technology in the world at large.
The NICI’s 10 pillars: infrastructure, e-Government, agriculture, health, trade
and commerce, education, local governance, regulatory issues, media and
gender will be a cross cutting one, for it is to create a data and knowledgebased platform that will strengthen our human resource capacity in an ICTcushioned environment, hence making a positive impact in The Gambia’s
socio-economic development.

7. Figure : Total GDP, and communications sector value and
contribution to the Gambian GDP

8. Currently, our country is going through an ICT overhaul
with the advent of these key projects:
 The ICT4D Action Plan -- a UNECA supported project that focuses on
implementing the provisions of The Gambian NICI Policy focus areas has
been re-organized into the respective 10 pillars designed to also
incorporate specific programmes and initiatives for implementing in
concrete terms the various actions of the World Summit on Information
Society (WSIS) Plan of Action. The goal is to make The Gambian ICT4D
Action Plans ‘WSIS-compliant.’

9.  Connect A School, Connect A
Community Project
This ITU funded Project is designed to
promote broadband connectivity in
schools in remote, rural or underserved
areas of the Gambia that will see schools
double as community ICT centres (CICs).
This Project aims to improve ICT access
and use by school children and members
of the local community, including
disadvantaged and vulnerable groups
such as, women and girls, indigenous
and rural people, older persons and
persons with disabilities

10.  ECOWAN -- an ECOWAS Regional Backbone Infrastructure responsible
for upgrading our national fibre optic network to a Next Generation
Network (NGN) under open access regime. This also includes an egovernment platform. ECOWAN project is a priority project for the
country as it would build the missing/critical fibre network on the North
Bank.
It will replace existing obsolete network on the South Bank of the country,
replacing major switches and secondary switches, overhauling of
transmission elements and network monitoring and management system.
Thus significantly contributing to national competitiveness, public
and private sector productivity and efficiency, and job creation
through ICT led SME growth.

11.  The West Africa Regional
Communication Information
Project (WARCIP)
WARCIP is poised to address the
connectivity gaps, which included the
World Bank funded African Coast to
Europe (ACE) submarine cable landing
station for The Gambia, which hosts our
first undersea cable.
The ACE is to remedy our connectivity
gaps in the country focusing on
international, regional and national
connectivity to enable the creation of a
fully integrated network, which will
provide
affordable
high-speed
connectivity to the country. WARCIP
components also include support to
strengthen an enabling environment for
development.

12.  E-Government
The Government of the Gambia
through MOICI with the support
of UNDP has implemented the
following projects under the First
Phase
of
The
Gambia
Government’s
e-Government
programme:
e-Government
Data Center -- The Data Centre
and Disaster Recovery Site was
established
with
the
collaboration of IFMIS. It is
currently
providing
e-mail
services to all civil servants
under the dot gov dot gm domain.

13.  E-Judiciary Project – (A project in partnership with the Judiciary)
E-Judiciary Project: Interlinking courts – The first phase of this
proposed project is to have all our national courts on one communication
platform. Our goal is to improve administration of courts in which people
trust. With the utilization of ICT tools, this can be done as it has been
implemented in countries like Ghana, Mauritius, Nigeria, Rwanda and India.
With a country our size, this initiative can soon become a reality. We have
engaged the UNDP on this project and are actively seeking potential
partners
E-Judiciary Computer Literacy Training -- The computer to
employee ratio of 1:8. Computer literacy is also about 50% based on a
computer literacy survey conducted by MOICI. This lead to the
Judiciary being the first beneficiaries of the newly revamped Gambia
Telecommunications Multi media Institute (GTMI). Our objective is to have
all staff, Management and even judges trained.

14.  IXP Project
We have recently partnered with the African
Union, who contracted the Internet Society to
conduct capacity building workshops on the
Technical
Aspects
of
operating
and
administering Internet Exchange Points under
the African Internet Exchange System (AXIS)
project. This first took place in January 2013.
According to a report, “Lifting barriers to
Internet development in Africa: suggestions for
improving connectivity,” for the Internet
Society by Robert Schuman and Micheal
Kendel, IXPs can and do improve the quality of
Internet services and save African operators
millions of dollars per year in connectivity fees
but that a key factor in the success of IXPs is
the availability of good domestic connectivity.
*End of projects*

15. Public Private Partnership
Few examples of PPP Initiatives in Gambia’s ICT sector
 QPOWER – NAWEC Cash Power on your QCell Mobile line
QPower is QCell’s innovation in partnership with NAWEC, our national
water and electricity provider, that enables QCell customers to purchase
NAWEC Cash Power (for electricity meters) using their QCell lines in two
easy steps – Register and Purchase.
Benefits of QPower:
 Brings convenience to QCell customers with NAWEC Cash Power Meters.
 The constraints of waiting in long queues;
 The inconvenience of having to sleep in the dark when cash power runs
out in the middle of the night when all cash power points have closed;
 Right there on your mobile phone- QCell is giving you the power to
purchase Cash Power at your own time, available to you 24hrs a day,
7days a week.

16. Few examples of PPP Initiatives in Gambia’s ICT sector
cont’d
 Gambia Submarine and Cable Company (GSC)
To take advantage of the Africa to Europe Project (ACE)
opportunity, a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) called the
Gambia Submarine Cable (GSC) Company Limited was
established between private operators, the incumbent
state owned company, GAMTEL/GAMCEL and
Government to further support the ACE. This gives our
private sector partners a sense of ownership. As
government, our role is to facilitate private sector
participation. We would like a Gambia with an enabling
investment environment. This is highlighted with the
first mobile / computer assembly plant in the Gambia,
RLG Gambia Limited, led by a young Gambian serial
ICT sector entrepreneur, Papa Yusupha Njie. His
company also trains people in phone and computer
repairs.

17. Girls in ICTs: Tech Needs Girls Campaign in the Gambia
This initiative is a two year programme in partnership with ITU and our
Gambia ITAG chapter; we run workshops for girls in Senior Secondary
Schools in mostly rural areas, that give basic computer literacy tools to basic
internet use, that will eventually lead to the introduction of girls to
appropriate computer skills that will lead to an interest in technical and
innovative aspects of ICTs. Girls are also linked with female
technologists who will be instructors and mentors. The goal is to
empower girls and young women to be entrepreneurial and make use of
opportunities ICTs avails. This initiative hopes to debunk the difficulty myth
surrounding science technology engineering and mathematics.
 ITAG has set up a Computer Learning Lab in the only female girls high
school in the Gambia, St Joseph Senior Secondary School.
 ITAG Gambia has been working with the Gambia YMCA Chapter to set
up a Computer Training Centre and Digital Studio, under the Jelypals
and web. This programme is designed by women for women. It is lead by
young female ICT professionals to lead to the innovative use of ICTs by
girls . You can follow them on twitter on https://twitter.com/YPlusYMCA

18. Challenges
 Funding;
 Human resource capacity;
 Inadequate collaboration;
 Narrow market for service delivery, irregular and unstable gridline
electricity supply;
 Cooperation from other government and non-government entities.
All these need to be addressed for The Gambia to be able to be successful
in the optimal usage and adoption of ICT for development.

19. Why Invest in The Gambia ICT Landscape???
In line with promoting partnerships in creating ICT based
investments across the country, we have a few investment
incentives and benefits below:
 Special Investment Certificate (SIC) -- VAT exemption on
imported direct inputs items (materials, equipment) for projects
for 5-8years depending on location.
 Export processing zone license – when at least 80% of output is
exported then the company is exempted from VAT, import duty
on capital equipment and custom duty for 10 years.
 Close proximity to Europe and America has made it a good choice
of investment.

20. Conclusion
The Gambia is a small nation filled with bold ideas that are being
realized. The rapid growth of the ICT industry is prove that our
policies are working and enabling a healthy growth in the sector. Just
as countries we would like to emulate: Ghana, kenya, Rwanda and
Mauritius have utilized ICTs in realizing their development dreams,
we are following the same path and hopeful that ICT will be indeed a
catalyst to furthering our country’s development agenda.
We look forward to hosting IAD Summit 2014 in The
Gambia and to welcome you all in the Smiling Coast of
Africa.
Thank you! Merci!
Gambia information: http://www.visitthegambia.gm/