GID Commissioner Gassama: Previous Applicants Can Pick Up Their National Documents

GID Press Conference © Askanwi

By Haddy Ceesay

After failing to issue national documents for most of 2024, the Gambia Immigration Department (GID) held a press conference at their headquarters in Banjul on 27th December 2024, announcing the resumption of issuance of national documents.

During the press conference, Commissioner Foday Gassama, in charge of processing, announced that they have printed a backlog of over 80K national documents, including Gambian ECOWAS National ID Cards, Residential Permits, Non-Gambian ID Cards, and Alien Cards.

New applicants can now apply for National documents to be printed.

Our reporter had submitted a request for information and published a FactCheck on the delay of the issuance of National documents. According to the letter response from the Ministry of Interior, “the SEMLEX contract agreement ended in March 2024. This agreement covered the production of the biometric National ID card, drivers license, non-Gambian ID card, resident permit, and alien card, respectively.”

Commissioner Gassama revealed that the GID was encountering challenges on the issuance of National documents because their software and hardware systems were both affected, which did not allow them to print National documents. The problem he highlighted was caused by licensing issues.

GID Press Conference © Askanwi

Speaking to the press, Commissioner Gassama explained that they started printing National documents on 9th December 2024 and have cleared the backlog of documents they had to print from previous applications. This process took them three weeks to complete.

In total, they have printed;

1.       38,904 Gambian ECOWAS National ID Cards for Gambian citizens 

2.       14,545 Residential permits for Non-Gambian residents in the country,

3.       22, 840 non-Gambian ID Cards, and

4.       4,648 Alien Cards.

Commissioner Gassama revealed that they are only left with 1,174 non-Gambian ID cards to print but are facing problems with consumables, which they are working to address. He concluded by urging members of the public who had previously applied for National documents to go and collect them along with their receipts.

He explained that the GID has 15 Centres from Banjul to Koina and that applicants can go to their nearest immigration office to apply for their National documents.