Ghana news Margins delivers first ID system for Gambia – President Barrow is inaugural recipient

After years of understudying Ghana’s national identity card system, The Gambia has rolled out its version of the ECOWAS-compliant ID card through a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) with Margins ID Group, Ghana’s home-grown technology company.

Gambia’s first-ever unified digital identity (ID) system, known as the National Identity Management System (GAM ID), represents a new chapter in Africa’s digital transformation story, marking a powerful demonstration of Africans building solutions for Africa.

The historic collaboration positions The Gambia among a growing number of African countries embracing Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), while showcasing the increasing capacity of indigenous African technology firms to design, finance, and deliver sophisticated sovereign digital infrastructure previously dominated by foreign multinational companies.

The landmark initiative establishes, for the first time in Gambia’s history, a single trusted digital identity platform that will underpin governance, national security, financial inclusion, digital public services and long-term economic development just as the Ghana Card envisages in its legal framework.

Gambian President Adama Barrow was joined by his cabinet ministers, diplomats, development partners and senior government officials to launch the ID card last Tuesday on the theme: “One Identity, One Nation: Advancing Inclusion, Security, and Digital Transformation in The Gambia”.

They began with the inauguration of the National Identity Management System Data Centre at Abuko, a town five miles southwest of the capital, Banjul, before proceeding to the Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara International Conference Centre, where President Barrow became the first Gambian to receive the new GAM ID card after undergoing live biometric enrolment and authentication.

Historic national milestone

President Barrow described the system going live and becoming operational as one of the most significant milestones in The Gambia’s nation-building journey, saying the country had finally overcome decades of fragmented identity systems.

“We are here today to launch the system that will provide every Gambian with a secure, trusted and verified identity.

For the first time in our history, The Gambia is establishing a unified, trusted national identity register with a unique identity for every Gambian,” he declared.

President Barrow added that the new identity ecosystem would fundamentally transform governance by improving public service delivery, strengthening national security and accelerating the country’s digital transformation agenda.

Margins ID Group lauded

The Gambian President also praised the partnership with Ghana’s Margins ID Group, describing it as an excellent model of African collaboration.

He stressed that although Margins supplied the technology, expertise, financing and long-term operational support required to execute the project, ownership of the entire system remained with the Gambian people.

President Barrow added that beyond delivering technology, the partnership was creating jobs for Gambians, strengthening local institutional capacity, and proving that African companies possessed the competence to build complex sovereign digital infrastructure without compromising national ownership.

Data sovereignty

At the centre of the programme is the National Data Centre, developed by Margins ID Group, which now serves as the secure technological backbone of The Gambia’s identity ecosystem.

The infrastructure enables biometric enrolment, credential management, identity authentication, and real-time identity verification while ensuring that the country’s national identity database remains physically hosted on Gambian soil, protected under Gambian law and owned by the State.

Permanent Secretary at the Ministry for the Interior, Amadou Nyang, said the GAM ID was the foundation for a new era of connected government.

He explained that the platform created one trusted source of identity capable of improving the quality, consistency and reliability of government data while allowing ministries, departments and agencies to securely share verified information instead of operating in isolation.

Mr Nyang also commended Margins ID Group for its commitment throughout implementation and reaffirmed the government’s confidence in the partnership.

Similarly, Director-General of the Gambia ICT Agency, Professor Abdulkarim Jalloh, said the platform would eliminate the long-standing burden on citizens of repeatedly submitting the same personal information to multiple government institutions.

Instead, he explained that agencies would increasingly operate from a single verified database, enabling citizens to experience “government not as separate institutions, but as one connected government.”

Identity digital economy’s foundation

Delivering the keynote address, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Margins ID Group, Moses Kwesi Baiden Jnr, described the system as the culmination of years of collaboration, perseverance and mutual trust between the government of The Gambia and the Ghanaian technology company.

He acknowledged that PPP involving national digital infrastructure was inherently complex and required patience, long-term commitment and shared vision.

According to him, GAM ID demonstrated what African governments and African technology companies could achieve when they worked together.

“For the first time, The Gambia now possesses sovereign digital identity infrastructure built on Gambian soil and owned by the Gambian people,” Mr Baiden said.

He argued that trusted digital identity had become one of the defining foundations of modern nation-building.

“Countries that do not build the foundational digital infrastructure capable of verifying both biometric and digital identities in real time will struggle to compete in the new digital economy.

Today, The Gambia has declared that it is ready for that future,” he added.

He explained that digital identity went far beyond issuing identity cards.

“Identity is the foundation upon which governments deliver secure services, businesses build trusted digital commerce, and citizens participate confidently in an increasingly digital world.

When identity can be trusted, entire economies become possible,” he said.

Mr Baiden said the platform created the secure digital foundation upon which future e-government services, digital payments, e-commerce, and numerous digital innovations could be built while protecting citizens against fraud, identity theft and impersonation.

Reaffirming Margins’ long-term commitment to Africa’s digital transformation, he declared: “We are proud to have partnered with His Excellency President Barrow and the government of The Gambia to conceptualise, finance, and deliver this transformational national platform. Welcome to the future.”

As part of its long-term commitment to the nationwide implementation of GAM ID, Margins ID Systems Applications Limited donated 17 operational vehicles to the Ministry for the Interior to facilitate nationwide biometric registration and deployment activities.

The Gambia will undertake a nationwide mass registration for the new GAM ID system from August 4, this year, following a phased pilot registration exercise targeting key government institutions and community leaders.