The world is paying greater attention to Africa, with the Continent poised to be the future global food basket, an essential energy source and the leading workforce producer due to its youthful and energetic population.
Realizing these factors, African governments are slowly but steadily embracing digital economy that stands to develop African economies across the board. Former Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya, Njuguna Ndung’u, however, emphasizes that digitization will only benefit those countries that invest in the required infrastructure and introduce commensurate regulatory technology.
In this context, the West African nation of the Gambia has taken an important step towards digital economy with President Adama Barrow appointing Mr. Ousman A. Bah as Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, effective Friday, 24th June 2022.
The mandate of the newly created ministry is to digitize services rendered to the public.
Until his appointment, Mr. Bah served as the Chief Executive Officer of the Indian Institute of Hardware Technology (IIHT) Gambia Limited.
Mr. Bah has over 20 years of corporate work experience at the Executive level in the Telecommunications and Fin-Tech industries. He served in Managerial and Executive positions and became Division Executive Leader of Heartland Payment Systems, Managing Director of Pure Energies, and Vice President of Bank of America Small Business.
Mr. Bah holds a BS in Information Technology from the University of Phoenix in 2004, an MSc in Systems and Networking Management, and an MBA in Business Administration from the Golden Gate University of California.
Minister outlines mission
In a recent interview with QTV, a private TV channel, the newly appointed minister outlined his mission, saying: “My vision in 3 to-5 years, is that I don’t want any Gambian go to an office to fill out a form; for you can apply for a driver’s license online, pay tax online, order coffee online.”
Minister Bah expressed his desire to help small businesses and build national digital infrastructure.
He also plans to review the digital infrastructure of all the government institutions: “I plan to carry out an assessment of the technological platforms that each ministry has to have a clear picture prior to designing and building infrastructure.
Exploring opportunities
Cyber security
Africa and digitization