This is a transcription of Dr Ismaila Ceesay’s address at the Mansa Kunda on Friday.
“Finally, ladies and gentlemen, this is our vision for our line agencies. We want to make sure that the national misinformation and disinformation response center will be the leading broadcaster in the West African subregion. Equipped with world-class infrastructure to modernize its TV and radio studios and transmission and outside broadcasting facilities to meet international standards.
We want to also ensure that we promote content excellence, produce high-quality news, entertainment, and cultural programs that rival regional and global networks. We also ensure the digital transformation of GRTS to expand digital platforms, OTT streaming, apps, and on-demand services to reach Gambians in the diaspora. We also want to position it to be a regional leader, to be the voice of West Africa by covering regional affairs and partnering with ECOWAS broadcasters.
In fact, GRTS has been elected to hold the 2026 African Union of Broadcasting General Assembly next year. We also want to make sure they develop talent by establishing a media training academy to nurture the next generation of broadcasters, journalists, and creatives. For GPPC, our aim is to expand its printing capacity through investment in modern equipment, enhanced collaboration with MDEs, and also is to fully comply with statutory obligations, maintaining customer-centric approaches to ensure service excellence and sustainability.
We also want to digitize publishing departments as well. The year 2025 has marked significant progress for GPPC to enhance capacity and strategic partnerships. As for DOIS, our aim is to focus on decentralizing government communication through the creation of communication offices that we already do.
But what we want to do is to make sure that we position it implement to be effective communication strategy through multiple uses of strategic communication channels. These strategies would be oriented to engineer DOIS functions and diversify its public service delivery channels. The messages and delivery methods are tailored to the needs of the diverse segment of society so that they can be using the appropriate channels.
And we are going for a PPP. A tender has been executed, and we are now negotiating with a potential company that is interested, and that was the most responsive bidder to implement the project in partnership with the government of the GAM. Ladies and gentlemen, this is what we have as our achievements, as our vision, but also as our mandate in the information security, accountability, and transparency, thereby consolidating our democracy, which we fought very hard to earn in 2016.
On that note, ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much. Thank you, Honorable Minister. It’s good to know that 20 minutes is not adequate, Honorable.
You spoke for more than 20 minutes, and this will be ideal for other ministries. But I can also say, you know, that the minister, you spoke far less than Honorable Hamad Bar when he was here. Because we did tell him it was 20 minutes.
He was saying, let me just complete. And then he said again, let me just complete. So he took 45 minutes, and so you did better.
You also did better than Honorable Samate, the minister for health. I think he did an hour. That was one of the longest we did.
Thank you for this, and we’d like to also welcome the excellencies from the Ministry of China and that of Sierra Leone present here. Honorable members of cabinet that are present here. Honorable Bar, Honorable Boy, Honorable Drame, and Prof himself, and Deputy Chief of Staff.
The Honorable Minister also for Gender is here. The Deputy Director for Press and Public Relations, Officer of the President, is here. Senior Officers from GRTS to all the departments under the Ministry of Media and Civil Society present.
And the media itself, really, this is our day. This is a media day. Welcome, media.
After all of this, almost 30 minutes, I am wondering now how the Permanent Secretary will try to summarize this in Wolof. Good luck, Ma. Thank you very much, Moderator.
Good evening, Honorable Ministers, members of the Diplomatic Corps, Honorable Minister of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services, heads of our agencies and departments under the Ministry of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services. As-salamu alaykum. It’s a very simple and straightforward one.
I will try to summarize it. Basically, the Minister of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services, thank you very much. Basically, this is the role of the Ministry within the scope of government.
Ministry of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services is the role of the entire government. The Ministry of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services exists as the Ministry of Information, Communication, and Infrastructure. For some time, it has been established with the coming of Minister Ismail Sisi, the Minister of Finance, Minister of Communications, basically the Minister of Communications, the Minister of Communications, and to emphasize the role, we have the role of President of the Ministry of Information to oversee, manage, and handle broadcasting, media, and so on.
In the international arena, we pay very much attention to cinematography, theater, and all the related subject areas as it relates to media and broadcasting. To summarize, we have established the role of the Ministry, Ministry of Information, Media, and Broadcasting Services to ensure that the Ministry has the capacity to ensure that it has an information provider for public-based citizens so that the citizens can have access to information in terms of promoting unity and broadcasting as a ministry. We also have an issue of accountability, transparency, accountability and transparency to ensure that the Ministry has the capacity to ensure has the capacity and accountability to ensure that the Ministry has the capacity to ensure that the Ministry has the capacity to ensure that the Ministry has the capacity We are also working with the community to ensure that the sectors that we are concerned with are included in the development agenda.
Under the Ministry, there is Digital Gambia Limited, Gambia Radio and Television Services, Digital Gambia Limited, Minister Biwan Malin, General Manager Bimoy Laminsedikan, Gambia Radio and Television Services, Director General Abdoulaye Sy. We also have the Department of Information Services, headed by Mrs. Aisha Davis-Anne. We also have the Gambia Printing Publishing Corporation, currently headed by Uhura Bah.
Under the Department of Information Services, a very important achievement, is the appointment of communication officers. These communication officers are assigned to the ministries. Another important achievement is the appointment of communication officer posts.
These communication officer appointments are an important achievement under the Department of Information Services. We also have the Department of Information Services, which has a Facebook page and social media platforms to provide assistance to the citizens. The Department of Information Services also has the Gambia Daily newspaper, which is being launched.
It’s an e-newsletter. It’s a newspaper that lists out the activities of the ministries and the sectors that are involved, from the presidency down to every single ministry, department, agency, government. It lists out the areas of activities that we have on a daily basis, weekly basis, monthly basis, to help us reach our aspirations and goals that the government has set out.
We also have the Gambia News Agency, which is being launched. We also have the bi-yearly magazine, Special Assignment Futures. This is another one that we are very proud of, because for the first time, they will be delving into this sector.
This is a major sector. We have several projects in this sector, such as interviews with ministers and directors. We also have a field called Disseminate for Public and Citizen Consumption.
Under the Access to Information Commission, DOIS has registered achievements. We have three communication officers, information officers, sorry, not ministries, who have been exposed. We have access to information law, which has been established by the Ministry.
Under the Gambia Public Printing Corporation, headed by Uraba, the Ministry is a state-owned enterprise. It was established by the Act of Parliament. Under the Act of Parliament, we have to ensure that our work has to do with high-quality printing work.
This is done by them. There are national events, where we have printings, where we have invitations, everything that you can think of, law books, where the Ministry of Justice prints, where the GPPC generates revenue for the government. These are the achievements of Minister Liston.
They have definitely a lot of transformation within institutions, because they are a state-owned enterprise, because they are the state-owned enterprise commission. Every single state-owned enterprise has certain key performance indicators that we monitor closely. We have to ensure that their role and situation are well-examined.
We have to ensure that they are well-examined. We have to ensure the quality of their work. We have to ensure that the corporate governance structure is well-established within the institution.
We have to revisit the existing laws to ensure that we generate more revenue for their sustenance. Under the Gambia Radio and Television Service System, headed by Director-General Abdullahi Si, GRTS was established by an act of parliament. GRTS registered a lot of progress.
For the first time, we have the opportunity to broadcast radio as well as television from Banjul to Koyna. The role of the government is to ensure that their work is well-established and that they are prioritized. GRTS has to ensure that their programs are well-established and that there is culture, education, as well as empowering of citizens as part of their public service mandate.
The other role of GRTS is that it is the National Information Disseminator Government. The role of GRTS is that it is an authentic agency that provides information to citizens nationally and internationally. Digital Gambia Ltd.
has a technical area of work that has to do with frequency transmission. We have to make money on frequency transmission. The government established Digital Gambia Ltd.
in October 2018 with the coming of this new government to ensure that analog, which has never been done in the past, exists, migrates into digital terrestrial broadcasting. I don’t know why, but I just get the gist of it. The role of GRTS, as I said, is very technical.
I guess you don’t really understand what you expect from it. It has to do with frequency as well as generating a lot of revenue for the government. Once you establish an institution of this sort, it generates a lot of revenue for the government.
It also provides opportunities for the number of employees as well as obligations that DGL has to fulfill internationally. The Information Commission, which was established by the government of His Excellency President Abudama Bara in September 2024, has five commissioners to appoint. As soon as they are appointed, they are appointed to the chairpersonship of Mrs. Nene Magdolge, as the head.
There are five commissioners. There is also Commissioner Yaa Amiture. There is Commissioner John Jai.
There is also Commissioner Babuka Cham. These are the five commissioners that the government recognizes and engages in this Access to Information Commission. As soon as they are appointed, they are registered in the press conference.
They hold the Hamilton role where they provide information from the government. It is important that the commission regulates this to ensure that the information that we receive is correct. This is the role of the Information Commission.
This is also a priority area. It is important to establish institutions that have the necessary tools as well as goals and aspirations. The Ministry has established the importance of having these instruments to ensure that the Ministry has the necessary tools to provide the necessary information and the necessary tools that we expect from the Ministry as well as the necessary resources that we need to achieve what we expect from the Minister as well as the President.
The National Communication Policy Strategy is very, very fundamental. The Ministry of Information and Media Broadcasting Strategic Plan 2026-2030 and the GRTS are important. It is important to establish and to modernize so that the rules that we have established are in line with international standards.
The Data Protection Privacy Bill is a framework that regulates the processing of data in order to protect human rights and the freedoms of individuals and their right to privacy. The DTT Transition under DGL that the Minister mentioned, the ATI Regulation and the Access to Information Commission are very important. We need to establish the rules that govern and manage them.
Thank you very much. The National Information Classification Policy that the Minister mentioned is very important because it has the power to classify information. We need to classify not just confidential but also categories.
We need to do it in such a way that the public can consume and use it in the right way. That is what we need to do. We also have media reforms that the Minister mentioned.
We need to establish media viability for journalists and media houses in order to make sure that they can exist and establish financial muscles in order to make sure that they can be used in the right way and that they can be used in the right way. We also need to establish financial support so that they can be used in the right way and that they can be used in the right way. We also need to develop theming permits.
We need to develop theming documentaries so that they can be used in the right way. It is important that we develop documentaries so that they can be used in the right way and that they can be used in the right way and that they can be used in the right way. We also need to develop guidelines for journalists so that they can be classified and qualified.
With the coming of the guidelines for accreditation of journalists you will be proud to stand and say that you would have gone through a thorough scrutiny and that you are talented. Guidelines for media in general such as online media and traditional media. We develop a lot of rules that scrutinize the information to ensure unity and stability.
Another initiative is the Ministerial Town Hall. It has become very popular. It is a monthly press conference where journalists are invited to speak in the region.
They are invited to speak about their experiences in the region. The region is a sort of a mansecunda of disorder. We are on the other side of the city.
Documentary and weekly ministers update on GRTS. Good morning Gambia. Coffee time with Peter Gomez.
Did you know, figure of the day, establishment of the Misinformation Disinformation Response Center. Bobo Mom has to do specifically with information. Well, that’s about it, I think, summarized now.
The press conference is over. I would like to thank the ministers who have been with us. Recently, we had an intergenerational meeting.
We had a member from the Children’s Parliament who shared her questions with the ministers. And it was a successful Mansukunda that was held recently. So, this is what we are doing.
We are also a strategic consultant. We have been working on this for a long time. Eventually, we will be able to translate messages.
We will be able to make Mansukunda into local languages.”
