PROJECTS/ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

The MOICI was created in 2002 to coordinate the prolific growth in the communications, information and technology (notably information technology) industries. The MOICI is to develop policies and regulatory frameworks to facilitate orderly growth in the communications industry and to manage telecommunication resources including the radio spectrum. At the level of the public sector (inter-sector collaboration), the MOICI is to coordinate and support the numerous sectoral information and communication technology (ICT) initiatives.

In an effort to build an information-rich and knowledge-based society consistent with the Declaration of Principles of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the MOICI will marshal on-going and future ICT initiatives into a coherent and robust national ICT-led policy and plan for socioeconomic development.

On-going Initiatives and Plans to Develop ICTs in The Gambia

There are several ongoing and planned projects which when implemented will capacitise The Gambia and position the country to better implement some of the aspects of the WSIS Action Plan. A selection of the activities in this area is given below.

Infrastructure Development Initiatives

Extension of the national telephone backbone through the extension of the network to the North Bank of the country using a combination of fibre optic cable and wireless technology (WLL). This is part of the Network expansion project for 2004.

Expand the capacity and speed of the Internet gateway bandwidth from 6Mbps (through Banjul to Senegal (SONATEL) to the outside world SAT3 cable) and 1 Mbps from Abuko (Satellite) to TELEGLOBE in Canada, to 10 Mbps to Broadband Internet in 2004. The ADSL (Assymetrical Digital Subsriber Line) project will be completed by April 2004 providing multiple user interface of voice, data and video.

Institutional Mechanisms/Structures

Establishment of an ICT Commission to streamline all the sectoral initiatives; address the issue of funding; set and enforce hardware and software standards; set computer use policy; systems administration policy and guidelines and so on.

Expansion of the Public Service to accommodate the IT Cadre who will support the ICT infrastructures and systems in the different sectors of Central Government. The Cadre will be administered by MOICI.