The Fourth Cabinet session of 2023 led by President Adama Barrow on Friday, 14th April 2023, concluded with adopting four policy documents under the Ministries of Digital Economy and Gender, Children, and Social Welfare, respectively.
Cabinet adopted the National Fibre Protection Policy, 2023, to ensure the security and protection of fibre optic cables and minimise fibre optic cable damages or risk to damages. The Policy has been designed, developed, and formulated out of need, urgency, and the necessity to address the country’s growing fibre cuts and fiber infrastructure vandalism.
The Policy sets forth clear roles, responsibilities, and obligations of all players in the Fibre Optic Infrastructure Ecosystem and lays down conditions of violations and consequences. Offenders engaged in fibre cuts can now be charged a minimum fine of half a Million Gambian Dalasis for any damage and cost of repair of the fibre infrastructure.
The Cabinet paper on Government Email Policy 2023, presented by Honourable Ousman Bah, was also discussed and adopted. It will ultimately replace all manual correspondences, including hardcopy letters and documents, to ensure the security and preservation of government information or contents communicated via email from being lost, damaged, or compromised.
The Government Email platform will provide efficiency in delivering letters and correspondences. Under the Email Policy, the Ministry of Digital Economy will work with the National Records Services (NRS) to integrate the email platform into the National Record Management System currently being deployed so that emails can be archived.
On Human Rights, Cabinet also discussed and adopted two papers presented by the Honourable Minister of Gender, Children and Social Welfare, Honourable Fatou Kinteh, on the AU Protocols to the Africa and Charter on Human and People’s Rights on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa and the Rights of Older Persons in Africa respectively.
The purpose of the Protocol on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in Africa is to give effect to the Government’s commitment as outlined in Section 31 of the 1997 Constitution of The Gambia and Persons with Disabilities Act, 2021.
Reiterating The Gambia Government’s to all citizens, Cabinet discussed and adopted the Protocol on the Rights of Older Persons in Africa, as outlined by the AU Assembly and Executive Council Decision of June 2015.
