Responding to complaints about long queues, repeated visits and extra costs, Jah said the Ministry of Public Service is working with the Gambia Immigration Department to re-engineer service delivery.
The first step was “service process simplification.” The ministry reviewed the steps for issuing ID cards, alien cards and passports, and removed those considered unnecessary.
“The next stage is to digitize the delivery of these services through the MyGov platform,” Jawara said. The platform was developed with the Ministry of Digital Economy, JICA and partners in Bangladesh.
He said workflows for ID cards and passports have already been built into MyGov. Once launched, citizens will be able to apply remotely instead of traveling repeatedly to government offices.
The platform has not yet launched due to contractual issues with passport issuance. Jawara said the ministry is working with Immigration to resolve this and hopes to roll out the platform before year’s end, starting with the Machine Readable Passport.
The digitalization drive targets three concerns: time, visits and cost.
“We want to reduce the time citizens spend applying, the number of times they visit departments to follow up, and the cost of traveling to access services,” he said. He cited Gambians abroad who travel home to apply, and rural citizens who must come to the Greater Banjul Area.
“Our objective is to make sure that, as time goes on, citizens will be able to apply for all these services online,” Jah said.
Information Minister Dr. Ismaila Ceesay said delays with national ID cards are “of the past.” He said authorities have launched a mass registration exercise with mobile teams traveling nationwide.
“The idea is that within a couple of months, we’ll enroll almost every eligible Gambian,” Ceesay said. The new ID cards will be valid for 10 years, and holders of valid existing cards will not pay for the new ones.
On passports, Ceesay said the biometric system is running smoothly. Mobile teams have also been deployed abroad, including in Spain and Italy, to enroll Gambians in the diaspora.
He added that the new ID system will also ease access to other documents such as driver’s licenses.
