Digital ministry to get Gambia cyber security policy

By AdamaMakasuba

 

Honourable Ousman Bah, Minister of Communication and Digital Economics has said his Ministry is working with stakeholders on the country’s proposed cyber security cloud aimed to help solve any future cyber-attack in the country.

“Right now, we are working on our cyber security cloud policy to help in the future for any cyber-attack. So, with that said, we have our strategy policy for ICT 2022-2024, as we are also working on that with the relevant stakeholders,” he said.

Meanwhile, he continued, “in the short term and medium term we are working with the relevant partners to deploy infrastructure which will ensure a reliable and quality internet. For example, a plan to deploy a second submarine landing station. The submarine’s second landing station is going to be huge for us.

“What that means is that now we have one submarine but that one if you can recall a year ago, we had an issue with that where a ship tampered with that cable and the country went dark.,” explained the Minister.

He went further to explain that with the second submarine landing station now they avoid what happened in the past not to reoccur to allow the infrastructure to expand and build or have a national data center.

“So, when we have a national data centre, E-governance and E-commerce, and all these private sectors and government sectors, we can host their data in this country and also sell their services outside,” he disclosed.

He said when it comes to internet speed, the country needs to expand broadband wireless, “that is a key and I want Gamtel to be the backbone of that and also encourage the GSMs to expand to the rural areas.”

“In all fairness, I would say, after securing the second submarine landing station and after getting the partnership with Gamtel to roll out the broadband wireless which we are talking about in maybe 18 to 24 months this would be in place that would help to reduce the cost of internet. It’s not just cost but also the speed,” he added.