By Makutu Manneh
Kwesi Atta-Panyin Baiden, the deputy chief executive of Margins Group, has described The Gambia’s newly introduced national identification card as a “digital revolution,” saying the system could significantly change how Gambians access public and private services.
Speaking on QTV’s State of Affairs, Mr. Baiden said the identification system being introduced in The Gambia would draw on more than a decade of experience from a similar project in Ghana, where the technology has been in operation since 2012.
He said lessons from the Ghanaian system would help The Gambia adopt more advanced technology while avoiding some of the challenges encountered during earlier stages of implementation.
“The system that is going to be rolled out in The Gambia is going to factor in all these years’ lessons learned,” Mr. Baiden said. “It is going to incorporate the best of technology.”
Mr. Baiden said Margins Group was selected to implement the project after a competitive bidding process involving 14 companies. He attributed the company’s selection to its experience developing and managing similar identity systems, particularly the practical knowledge it has accumulated over more than a decade.
He said that although Margins Group would establish the technical infrastructure and provide initial expertise, the system would ultimately be operated by Gambians.
Officials of the Gambia Immigration Department, he said, would be trained to manage and maintain the system independently once the necessary infrastructure was in place.
Mr. Baiden also said the new card would differ significantly from previous national identification documents. It will be capable of securely storing biometric information and other identity data, functioning, in his description, like a “mini computer.”
The card will also contain a passport profile alongside the holder’s national identity information, he said, combining multiple identity functions within a single document.
Mr. Baiden described the technology as potentially transformative, arguing that a secure digital identity system could make it easier for government agencies and other institutions to verify identities and deliver services.
He called the new system a “life changer,” pointing to its ability to consolidate identity and travel-related information in a single, secure document.
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