The Gambian delegation accompanying the minister included Mr. Ebrima Darbo, the Deputy Permanent Secretary, Mr. Lang Loum, the Deputy Director of ICT, Mr. Sering Modou Bah, the Principal ICT Officer, and Mr. Assan Jammeh the Senior Planner. The ministerial delegation was received by Mr. Eddy Kayihura, the Chief Executive Officer, AFRINIC.
Mr. Kayihura, showed the Honourable minister around the office, introducing him to the staff. The visitors made it to the board room where Mr. James Chirwa, AFRINIC Head of Member Services, delivered a presentation on AFRINIC showcasing the state of resource membership in Gambia and provided inputs on how the Ministry can partner with AFRINIC champion AFRINIC services (IPv6, IRR, and RPKI) Adoption.
Concerning digital growth, the two principals had deliberations on IPv6 deployment in Gambia, and how the two organizations can collaborate. “I want to assure you IPv6 deployment in the Gambia come January 2023”, said, Honourable Bah. On his part, Mr. Kayihura committed to providing support towards IPv6 deployment in the Gambia. Mr. Kayihura said, “We want to support the Gambia to achieve its digital transformation objectives and one of the ways we will do this is by supporting your IPv6 adoption. We will ensure your engineers are trained and walk them through IPv6 deployment and I am glad that come January 2023, this will be achieved”.
Concerning the minimal number of resource members in the Gambia, the Honourable Minister assured Mr. Kayihura that he would see to it that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in his country become resource members for IPv6 adoption to be realised. This is in line with the Ministry’s mission of promoting the development of robust, scalable, reliable, affordable, and accessible modern information. The Minister expressed the urgency for this initiative and promised to meet with the Gambian Internet stakeholders in the coming week to discuss the way forward.
Hon. Bah applauded the work that AFRINIC is doing towards realizing sustainable digital growth in the region and expressed his optimism about the partnership between AFRINIC and Gambia’s Ministry. This visit by the Gambian delegation is part of the delegation's study of the digital ecosystem, infrastructure, and development in Mauritius.
