Council member
The Gambia
The Gambia joined the Digital Cooperation Organization in February 2023.
The Gambia’s National Entrepreneurship Policy envisions that by 2026, The Gambia will have an enabling entrepreneurship environment with quality entrepreneurship, education and a thriving entrepreneurial spirit embracing all parts of the country.
The Government of The Gambia (GoTG) recognizes the importance of the digital economy for accelerated, inclusive and sustainable growth. The National Development Plan (NDP) 2018–2021 has, under the Critical Enabler 5 “Making The Gambia a Digital Nation and Creating a Modern Information Society”, outlined a framework to harness the benefits of ICT in all sectors of the economy for equitable development.
Digital Economy Statistics
- 6 of the 10 fastest growing economies are in Africa according to smart Africa.
- Africa union’s Digital Transformation Agenda 2020 – 2030 strategic objective is to build a single digital market in Africa by 2030 with an estimate of USD 180 Billion to the continent’s GDP by 2025.
- The Gambia as a country recognizes the opportunities in the digital 4.0 industrial revolution and as such in June 2022.
- His Excellency, The president of the Republic of the Gambia President Adama Barrow Decoupled the then MOICI into two new ministries MOCDE & Ministry of Information.
- The Ministry of Communications and Digital Economy is now championing the Digital Transformation agenda of the government.
There are several technology startups emerging in The Gambia, with a focus on areas such as e-commerce, mobile app development, and software engineering. The University of The Gambia offers degree programs in computer science and information technology, and there are also a number of vocational training programs and coding bootcamps available.
The digital landscape in The Gambia is rapidly evolving, with increasing adoption of mobile and internet technologies in recent years.
- Internet penetration: There were 580.2 thousand internet users in The Gambia in January 2021. The number of internet users in The Gambia increased by 108 thousand (+23%) between 2020 and 2021. Internet penetration in The Gambia stood at 23.7% in January 2021
- Mobile phone: There were 4.02 million mobile connections in The Gambia in January 2021. The number of mobile connections in The Gambia increased by 174 thousand (+4.5%) between January 2020 and January 2021. The number of mobile connections in The Gambia in January 2021 was equivalent to 164.1% of the total population
- Digital infrastructure: The Gambia has made some progress in recent years, with the expansion of mobile networks and the deployment of fiber optic cables to improve internet connectivity
