The Gambia government through the ministry of information has partnered with Google LLC, and the Kanifing Municipal Council (KMC), to implement the Google Plus Codes Project, in the Kanifing Municipality (KM) following the successful implementation of the pilot project in Banjul in 2020.
A press release from the aforesaid ministry sent to Foroyaa on Wednesday stated that the project is part of the mandate of the Ministry of Information and Communication Infrastructure (MoICI)to ensuring full connectivity of everyone to ICT services’ and in its quest to achieve the main goal of Critical Enable 5 the National Development Plan (2018-2021), which seeks to “Making The Gambia a Digital Nation and Creating a modern information society”.
“The Google Plus Project which is expected to last for four months effective July 2021, will provide a proper digital addressing system to all properties within the Kanifing Municipality including landmarks. This Project upon completion is expected to revitalize the country’s already dead postal services, boost security, ambulance and health services and change the business structure by giving rise to new businesses (e-commerce and efficiency) and innovation thereby creating more jobs.
“At the same time, businesses and companies will have accurate and accessible customer database to support innovation by the creation of online shopping platforms and increase international courier services. Moreover, it will generate more revenue for precision tax collection and effective service deliveries,” the presser stated.
It further indicated that to implement the project, fifty-six (56) Field Operators have been recruited to go round to collect data on all properties within KM and subsequently, fix the address boards on each property.
“In light of this, we kindly solicit the full cooperation and support of the general Public during the implementation exercise to help facilitate the smooth operation of the Field Operators.
“In a similar note, the general public is kindly informed that any individual or entity currently planning to implement a similar Digital Addressing scheme within or outside KM, is kindly advised to reach out to the Ministry soonest, as only the Government is allowed to roll out a national digital addressing system given the security implications in relation to data,” the presser stated.
