The Gambia Government has on Thursday reduced international incoming termination rate from US$0.45 to $0.25 and $0.30.
The decision which was proposed by information minister Ebrima Sillah has been accepted by cabinet at their 10th meeting at the State House on Thursday.
Authorities said the essence of the move was to make the Gambian destination more competitive (cheap), thus enabling the country to comply with the required harmonization within Economic Community of West African States.
Authorities said the decision will also help the Government combat specific network-related fraud in communications services and increase the volume of direct incoming tele-traffic and improve on the current revenue stream of incoming international voice traffic.
Cabinet also adopted a paper presented by the Sillah for the establishment of an ICT agency in The Gambia.
The Agency will be mandated to carry out several issues including, but not limited to: Provision of centralized platform for the government’s e-governance adoption and application, facilitate the use of ICT for the improvement of the efficiency, effectiveness and operations of government and cost effective delivery of government services, facilitate the development of systems and applications (e-agriculture, e-tourism, e-health) for improved public service delivery and facilitate the creation of Made-in-Gambia ICT services to boost local content generation to drive self-employment.
The Cabinet also adopted a paper laid before it by the interior minister Ebrima Mballow on the ratification of the ECOWAS convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, their ammunitions and related matters.
The former government refused to ratify this ECOWAS-wide convention when it was first brought before it in 2011.
The new government has taken the bold step to join the League of Nations in the ECOWAS sub region to adopt this important document for its subsequent ratification in the National Assembly.