The collection on the payment of alien identity cards in The Gambia from January to December 2006 stood at over D11M with the city of Banjul scoring the highest amount.

This was revealed by the Secretary of State for the Interior, Ousman Sonko at the National Assembly in response to a question posed by Foday A. Jallow, Member for Niamina East. According to the Interior Secretary of State, Banjul collected D7,185,100, KMC D1,120,500, Western Region D209,500, Lower River Region D288,000, North Bank Region D1,510,000, Central River Region D691,000 and Upper River Region D2,531,000. He described the fall in revenue shown in the distribution that affects KMC and Western Region as resulting from the fact that cashiers in the said regions were paying directly to the central cashier in Banjul.

Further asked by the Member for Niamina East on whether all the foreigners residing in this country are registered, and whether they are legal immigrants as far as security is concerned, SoS Sonko replied that almost all aliens in the country are registered. He added that this is why Immigration Officers are seen everywhere conducting check at strategic locations to track-down those who are not registered so that they can be registered.