By Yero S. Bah
Information Technology has evolved within the past two decades to the level that people, especially the younger generation usually referred to as the “millennial tech-generation”, cannot do without it in life.
This has created what tech-savvy individuals described as the “millennialism era” for citizens of the globe, as information technology affects everyone in one way or another.
“It has boosted country’s economies, trades, businesses and global partnerships. It has made the entire world a single village,” experts say.
According to Gambian IT specialists, Information Technology is flourishing as well in the Gambia, noting that new tech firms in large numbers have sprung up within this decade. And individual young Gambians are making footprints in the young information industry as more and more citizens get into information technology-related businesses and entrepreneurship ventures.
Mr. Alieu Bangura is one such young Gambian Techpreneur who works for the newly created “Statesman IT Consulting Company” in the Gambia, which offers promotional ads, IT solutions and training services to start-ups businesses in the country.
He argued that IT is the driving force of economic growth, business advancement, and cultural changes in this day and age, noting it encompasses every aspect of the lives of people and countries, worldwide.
“It is one thing that we cannot do without, and for me, Information Technology was my right calling over all other fields,” Bangura told this medium.
He explained, “I actually used to enjoy walking into Internet Cafes, to interact with people who were into technology, to discuss about entrepreneurship in relation to information technology.”
A Computer Science graduate from the University of The Gambia, Bagura intimated that IT is one field that opens up limitless opportunities for people and nations.
He informed that Statesman Consulting Company promotes local start-ups by exposing them to the outside world through publicity and ads {adverts} using information technology and tech-related promotional adventures.
The young techpreneur argued that Gambians usually “careless” about their cyber security issues, saying it’s very scary. In fact, to him, it is “scarier than the coronavirus”. He noted that some other countries worry more over their treasury cyber-security; but he held that the Gambia is not much vulnerable to such cyber-security issues considering the fact that, most of the Treasury bill transactions and other national data are not uploaded on these platforms as other nations would.
He, however, cautioned that the country must take precautionary measures when it comes to cyber-security matters as individuals anywhere on the globe could use the internet to direct attacks on any country, including the Gambia. He hinted that the world is heading into cyber warfare in the future and that data protection is equally paramount as it could be used against countries and individuals.
Therefore, in fighting cybercrimes, “every country must take it seriously,” Bangura charged. He also said the amount of data they put out there, determines their vulnerability. But notwithstanding, he posited that they should also move forward as a nation in this industry.
Bangura’s view is that Gambians are not akin to changes; that they still apply “nineteen century filing systems” in public institutions and departments. “Instead of introducing new technologies in our institutions, we are still determined in using old manual filing styles which consumes time and eventually slows progress. It takes us far back,” said Bangura disappointedly.
The IT analyst believes information technology-wise, the Gambia is hungry, as citizens are working round-the-clock to making the Gambia an IT-hub in Africa. Young people of this country are coming up with fantastic tech-ideas, acknowledged Bangura.
In terms of human resources, he is of the positive view that the Gambia could be better than many other African countries; but was quick to lament that lack of proper infrastructures and right investments hamper the development of information technology in the Gambia, unlike countries such as Kenya and Rwanda where tech-businesses are at another level all-together, compared to The Gambia.
Also, he said the resistance to change in the country is largely due to ignorance of the importance of IT, its convenience and the syndrome of impeding accountability measures by numerous public officials. He claimed that the determination of using old fashioned methods of manual filing systems compromises accountability since data can easily be lost by officials, which IT actually, purposely came to address, in so many ways.
The Chief Executive Officer of Statesman Consulting Company, Mr. Sulayman Jallow, said “IT is everything today” as it touches all aspects of life from economy, health, education, agriculture, social to climate change and the environment.
He asseverated that Information Technology has “engulfed everything that we do”, pinpointing that “In education, IT has made learning easier, accessible and affordable for people globally; that it facilitates the means of data collection for agriculturists, “medical personnel in the collection and keeping of records of patients for doctors, and it’s the same stories for all other spheres of life when it comes to Information Technology in this era of information sharing”.
Jallow said climate activists could use IT to effectively combat climate change in the form of data gathering about climate change and the creation and installments of GPS systems to monitor all its related issues-“which goes for all other aspects of life”.
He also re-echoed the need for the Gambia to evolve from its current IT-status to move more into the tech industry which lacks the required funding and investments for better prospects in the future.
CEO Jallow again: “Usually, in other countries where tech has flourished, it is private firms that invest into it, then later sell it to governments.” Noting that some individual Gambians are investing a bit in tech-businesses, but he added that much more needs to be done if Gambians want to benefit much more from tech-ventures.
The Statesman Consulting Company boss held that “the old styles of doing things” in communication and information sharing are outdated in this day and age, and that Gambians need to adapt to the new era of technology.
Pointing out that change is a complicated subject, Jallow indicated that with IT, climate activists can effectively combat it by collecting relevant data on the global challenge to reorient and reshape thoughts on the issue.
In his words, IT now plays a significant role in the social lives of people, citing platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and others are avenues where people meet and form relationships, sometimes resulting to stronger intimacies, inter alia marriages and mutual friendships.
“People get their spouses through social media platforms. It is just amazing that families are created from these sites, today,” he excitedly pointed out.
The tech-savvy duo recalled there was a time, people used to sit to wait for telephone calls in call centers, but that is no more with the advent of IT and social media platforms. They observed that the globe has amassed more wealth as a result of Information Technology and tech-ventures than it did before the availability of IT.
Meanwhile, both IT analysts cited that, the virtual world has brought in lack of comradeship amongst people, affected physical interactions which Gambians were used to, and facilitated more rooms for negative vices such as leaking of unwanted videos of people on social media leading to character assassinations and vilifications, promotion of fake news whereby these issues have culturally affected their collective humanity as a people and individuals.
