The Chief Executive Officer of Pristine Consulting A. Draman Touray, whose company created the Gambia Biometric Identification System GAMBIS, has revealed that the platform with a database of 350 Gigabytes (350GB) is the largest database in The Gambia and developing it took over six years and involved 1.2 million professional hours of work.
Speaking at recent press conference launching a new product ID Card Check, Touray said over 4 million pages of documentation have been collected so far with over 100 Immigration and Police officials trained in the use of the GAMBIS platform.
Mr Touary also explained that the GAMBIS project has been entirely pre-financed by Pristine Consulting to the tune of over $3 million (three million dollars) with Government of The Gambia spending zero dollars.
“To date, the GAMBIS project has netted The Gambia Government about 300 million dalasi and is the most successful Public Private Partnership project in Gambian history,” he said.
Asked about the court case Pristine instituted against the former government over alleged unpaid dues totaling six million dollars, Touray said there are engagements with the new government and it would not be proper to disclose details about that but movements are being done to resolve it. Mr Touray reminded his audience that GAMBIS today stands in the forefront of identification technology and innovation.
“The GAMBIS is the world’s first totally integrated multi-document identification platform. This means that the platform was the first platform in the world in which national identity documents such as National ID Cards, Driver Licenses, and Residential Permits are all issued on the same platform using the same database. This is a significant achievement of which all Gambians and African should be proud,” Mr Touray said.
He further disclosed that the platform is the type of technological innovation that African countries will need in order to develop their countries. “These types of innovations are also necessary in order to create employment and business opportunities for countries such as The Gambia where youth unemployment is approximately 68%,” he added.
On their latest product, Touray said the new product called ID Check is designed to help businesses identify their customers.
“We are excited to launch our ID Check product in The Gambia following its successful use in eight West African countries by various businesses including banks and microfinance institutions. We believe that our biometric software technology will reduce risks for Gambian businesses and make it easier to get access to finance and other vital services.”
About Pristine Consulting
Pristine Consulting is the first and only Microsoft Certified Partner in The Gambia. Started in 2002. It has been involved in many technological innovations and reputable institutions such as Gambia Ports Authority, SSHFC, Central Bank of The Gambia, G4S, JFIN, and the GNPC have all used Pristine technology to make their businesses more efficient and less expensive to manage. The company enjoys affiliates in eight other West African countries including the World’s first regional credit bureau covering the BCEAO region of the UEMOA zone.
