Gambia’s Cabinet of Ministers has agreed that state-backed telco Gamtel and its mobile subsidiary Gamcel will be restructured and that shares in Gamcel will subsequently be divested, Gambian newspaper The Voice reported.
According to Telegeography, the decision was reached after debating the results of a study presented to Cabinet by Minister for Information & Communication Infrastructure Ebrima Sillah and Minister for Finance & Economic Affairs Mambury Njie. The agreed restructuring plan stipulates that Gamcel will operate ‘under an independent management, free from Gamtel’s control and influence’, whilst Gamtel will be ‘restructured and repositioned, in order to make it more effective and efficient’.
Minister Sillah confirmed to press that in the same session Cabinet furthermore agreed that the full liberalisation of Gambia’s international telecoms gateway ‘be expedited’, involving completion of a ‘full blown monitoring system which will be managed by the [autonomous telecoms regulator] Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA)’.