President Jammeh recently donated four DELL computers to the Department of Information Services in Banjul. The donation came as a result of the intervention by the Secretary of State for Communication, Information and Information Technology (DoSCIIT) Mrs. Fatim Badjie-Janneh who presented the equipment on behalf of the President.

In handing over the brand new computers, Mrs. Badjie-Janneh revealed that during her discussion with His Excellency she expressed her concern that the Department of Information Services has been without functioning computers and “it is getting a while to get equipment from Finance”. She however explained that it was at this juncture that the President offered to donate four Dell Computers to the Department as a start.

She revealed that she had discussed the plan with the President and also the possibility of a Gambian daily newspaper to be published by the Government Information Services.

Secretary of State Badjie-Janneh mentioned that the President suggested that Government projects should be displayed on the newspapers well as classified advertisements.

Secretary of State Badjie-Janneh went further to explain that it is sad to come and find a room closed because no one can work and for a long time the Department of Information Services has been quiet.

She emphasised that in the first place information coming from the Gambia Government should come through the department. “You should feed GRTS news, reliable sources and you should let people know about Government’s Policies and Programs,” SOS Badjie-Janneh added.

She further pointed that the President said, “you should be the gateway and that you should have website that links all the websites in the Country and you should be the information Services as you are.”

She further revealed her plan to provide a technical assistant for the Department. “This person may come from outside The Gambia and give you boast so that we all can be a State Department changing the way Information Services is are carried out. We will become one of the strongest sectors that we have in our Department of State,” she said.

Secretary of State Badjie-Janneh reiterated that in other countries she could have been called the Minister of Information and it is sad when we have an Information Services here that are not functioning very well.

In receiving the equipment, the acting director of Information, Mrs. Isatou Davies Ann, commended President Jammeh for this valuable donation and to the Secretary of State for her foresight and initiative. She noted that since she took over as Secretary of State the department has been her number one priority which every member of staff has appreciated. Earlier on the permanent secretary at Department of State for Communication, Information and Information Technology, Mr. Alhagi Cham, assured them that, “this is just to show you have our support and we will do everything possible to ensure that you have the required tools to work with.”