If the Immigration Department indeed has the capacity to issue ID cards without relying on any external company to ensure data sovereignty, it should start afresh by overhauling all previous data and establish a new data base for the identification of Gambian citizens. Those who were left out without ID cards would be registered as a matter of priority and a scheme established to renew the registration of those who already have ID cards. The process should have a deadline, signaling that all those who are 18 and above have been registered.
The ID cards should then be used to get voters’ cards, drivers’ licenses, and be used for other purposes in banks, hospitals and other institutions. Data sovereignty provides a foundation for national security and sovereignty. Should external institutions control the data of a country or have free access to them, no such country could be free from being held at ransom at one point or another. The sooner national institutions are well equipped to render national service the more the country could safeguard its national sovereignty.
