The Government of the Gambia has expressed its commitment towards liberalizing its international gateway to ‘harness the benefits of ICT in all sectors of the economy for equitable development’ as outlined in the recently launched National Development Plan (NDP).
“The Government of the Gambia is very much committed to the liberalisation of the international voice gateway. As you may be
aware, the data gateway is already liberalized,” the Minister of
Information and Communication Infrastructure, Demba Ali Jawo, told
journalists on Wednesday at a news conference held at his office in
Kanifing, about 7 km away from Banjul.
The new regime has vowed to make Gambia a digital nation in creating a modern information society. Breaking the monopoly of state-owned enterprises appear to be key for the liberalisation process.
Minister Jawo said the Public Utilities and Regulatory Authority (PURA) is edging closer to finalizing the procurement process for the
National and International Gateway Measurement Systems (NIGMS).
The new equipment is expected to boost the capacity of the regulatory body to conduct monitoring.
“This system among other things is expected to include the following: revenue assurance; anti-fraud management; quality of service
and mobile money monitoring,” he added.
Gambia gov’t spokesperson made it clear that the liberalisation will be confined within the country’s existing GSM operators and Internet Service Ptoviders (ISPs).
“We definetely not intend to extend it to foreign companies,” he said.
Written by Abdoulie JOHN
This is either a poorly written speech by Mr Jawo or a poor contribution from Mr John/
One week the President declares Gambia open to foreign investors/ Then this declaration from Mr Jawo that some areas or sectors of the ecomomy are not;
This requires detailed explanations; From The Minister or the reporter.