Gambia’s Telecommunication (GAMTEL): What does the Future Portend for the West African nations “National Treasure and Breadbasket?”

When one quickly analyzes the plight of The Gambia’s Telecommunications Company (Gamtel), it could suffice to say that the communications institutions has been reduced from its prestige as a “national treasure and breadbasket,” to one on the brink of collapse as a result of  failed government policies under which the institution operated over the past decade.

 It could be recalled that before the July, 22^nd Military Coup of 1994, GAMTEL was one of the most successful government institutions with annual profit rates not only the highest, but also considered one of Africa’s fastest growing and best telecommunications infrastructures. Even most of the activities and projects of the Military Junta in the early days of the 1994 coup were partly and in some instances fully supported by GAMTEL’s earned revenue reserves.

What has therefore propelled GAMTEL to institutional failure, and what went wrong over the years?

 Many tales has been told about corruption, greed and transparency by national executives, and many others about the operations of erstwhile Secretary of States and directors who oversaw the company over the years. But the most recent termination of the Secretary of State for Communications and Information, Mrs. Fatim Badgie Janneh; the two days short lived Secretary of State Mr. Omar Ndow; and the subsequent transfer of the Communications and Information’s portfolio to the President’s Office, are what many contend to be both troubling and raising an eyebrow.

Controversial telecommunications contracts with foreign companies such as SPECTRUM, the lack of human development in the institution; a declining consumer confidence as a result of poor services and failed policies of the administration has also become proponents to the subsequent failure of GAMTEL

Confirmed reports also indicated that Government’s intention of selling GAMTEL off to global bidders was what brought in a conflict of interest on questions of principle, on the part of the former young Secretary of State, Mrs. Fatim Badgie Janneh.  She demonstrated what could largely be argued as an understanding of Gambia’s development with knowledge of the nation’s socio-economic and socio-political implications.

Although government interventions has become the epitome of salvaging modern day global economic and financial crisis, selling GAMTEL off will only constitute underdevelopment, and a travesty to history, and the future of young Gambians and the next generation of leaders.  As Robert Gilpin Wrote: 

“The principal source of under-development is government policies that distort economic incentives, inhibit market forces, and actually work against economic development.”

Under such abysmal economic conditions, the policies of the Gambia government in effectively addressing the impending predicament of the troubled national telecommunications company is what will largely determine its plight in the global competitive market. Government must not completely step aside, but stay involve through pursuing “market -conforming economic policies”; through effective and transparent contracts with investors using fiscal discipline as a vanguard in shaping the telecommunications institution regain its long “lost glory.”

Such policies will require an end to “extraordinarily rapacious and corrupt behavior of public officials,” establishment of new institutional structures, and the reformation of rules and regulations, to one of transparency and market-oriented discipline.

What doe the Future therefore portend for the Gambia’s Telecommunications Company (Gamtel)? This is the very good question that many Gambians continue to find an answer to.

What is certain is that the opportunities to revive the institution from its trouble past are available, and that can only be achieved through rational functions and responsible policies adopted and implemented by the government As Robert Gilpin once wrote:

“In a report titled The State in a Changing World, the World Bank declared that economic development is dependent on a society’s getting its political as well as its economic fundamentals right. Without the former, such characteristics of the latter as openness to trade and sound macroeconomic policies cannot work because social norms, institutions, and customs determine how economic inputs will be used and whether success will in fact be forth coming.”

For the Gambia government to set the troubled telecommunications company on the trajectories of economic development, both theoretical and empirical evidence would unveil paramountcy in adopting a transparent percentile share telecommunications contract with investors, than selling-off a national institution that has the potential of boosting the economic, social and political fundamentals of the tiny West African nation.

Former Secretary of State, Mrs. Fatim Badgie Janneh’s advice to the government was therefore in concurrent with modern economic theories and development. Even Michael Tudoro et al made similar arguments in their book titled Economic Development. They argued that:

“Private foreign investment can be an important stimulus to economic and social development as long as the interests of both a foreign company and the host- country governments coincide (assuming of course, that they don’t coincide along the lines of dualistic development and widening inequalities).”

Will the President’s office revive the troubled telecommunication company to the path of restoring its glory?

Hopefully President Jammeh will use his good office to do so. Doing so requires an understanding that Gamtel’s autonomy under the auspices and technical expertise of the Information and Communications Secretary of State is the first step of putting the organization on a trajectory of regaining its glory.

However, only time will tell, as the young generation of Gambians continue to wonder about what the future holds for their “national treasure and bread basket.”

An excessive use of executive authority with a disregard of technical and professional expertise will set a dangerous precedent as has already done.

This is just a food for thought for our wise Gambian authorities.