By Arret Jatta
The Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (Pura) has announced that The Gambia will transition from a seven-digit to a nine-digit national telephone numbering system beginning September 4, 2026, as part of efforts to expand the country’s telecommunications capacity and support future digital growth.
Speaking at a press conference yesterday, Pura Director General Njogou Bah described the migration as a landmark reform that will affect every mobile phone user, business and institution in the country.
He said the existing seven-digit numbering system has reached its limits due to growing demand for mobile services, digital technologies and machine-to-machine communications.
Bah explained that the current system can generate a maximum of 10 million unique telephone numbers, while the new nine-digit plan will expand capacity to one billion numbers, providing sufficient numbering resources for decades.
He stressed that subscribers will not lose or change their existing phone numbers. Instead, every current seven-digit number will remain intact, with a two-digit prefix added to the beginning. Under the new plan, Africell numbers will be prefixed with 87, QCell numbers with 83, and Comium numbers with 86.
As for Gamtel and Gamcel, the National GSM operators, Pura said they are not ready to be a part of it yet but they will join when they are ready.
“The phone number does not disappear. Your SIM card does not change. Your handset does not change. Your network provider does not change,” Bah said, adding that airtime balances, data plans, registered SIM details and other mobile services will also remain unaffected.
He said both the existing seven-digit and the new nine-digit numbers will work simultaneously from September 4 to November 30, 2026, giving the public time to update their contact lists and systems. After November 30, calls and SMS messages using the old seven-digit format will no longer connect.
Bah announced the launch of a five-month nationwide public awareness campaign and urged the media to help educate the public.
Consultant Nicolas Jatta said the migration was essential because many Gambians now own multiple SIM cards, rapidly exhausting the country’s available numbering resources. He noted that the nine-digit plan would future-proof The Gambia’s telecommunications infrastructure and accommodate technological growth for generations.
It was also noted that the transition from 7 digits to 9 digits is completely free for customers.
