In his commitment to provide fast, affordable and accessible internet service to Gambians, Khalifa Faal, A Gambian IT businessman, partnered with a Senegalese internet provider, Sonatel, to ensure Gambians both in rural and urban residents, enjoy fast, cheap  and reliable internet service.

Mr. Faal however, expressed concern about the delay of the government to grant him green light to establish an internet service that could provide over 500 employment opportunities to Gambians.

According to the CEO of Xoom Wireless, he has fulfilled all the requirements of PURA, but one year later, the Ministry of Information has still not given him the go ahead to commence operation. Faal further stated that, he returned from the USA to The Gambia to contribute his quota towards national development but the government is literally making it impossible for him.

“Pura did all the due diligence and our transfer application was recommended for approval on 12 Sep 2019. Today [Saturday] is September 5 and usually it should only take three months to complete this process,” he said.

Mr Faal said, he has invested more than a million in this project and his partner, Sonatel, is equally worried as to why the process took a whole year to complete.

“I have invested more than a million into this. The fact is that internet connectivity really in Gambia is poor and even if it is available, it is expensive. People in the rural areas cannot access it because of limitations. Xoom and Sonatel want to come in and build a countrywide network for fixed broadband where even if you are in Basse, or Niumi, you get the same quality of service that you get in the Greater Banjul Areas, at a very low cost. We just want to give Gambians a good internet connection,” Mr Faal concluded.

Efforts to contact Ebrima Sillah, minister of information regarding the aforementioned, proved futile.

By: Fatoumatta Samateh