By Amadou M Jadama
The director general of the Management Development Institute has appealed to the President Barrow-led Government through the Gambian lawmakers to help the institution’s information and communication technology department.
He said the demand for ICT studies is growing exponentially which puts so much pressure on MDI’s ICT department.
Alieu K Jarju made this appeal on Thursday when the National Assembly select committee on education made an oversight visit to MDI.
“In this rapidly changing world, fostered largely by globalization and increased application of technology to develop and socio political processes, it is imperative for all countries to develop adequate and efficient human resource capacity to not only deliver services for their citizens, but to compete as equals in the league of nations.
“In our context, we first must understand that poverty and underdevelopment are structural rather than natural conditions that can be reversed through the development of a strong human resource capacity based especially in the area of ICT, so we need your support to make sure that, this particular area is really addressed,” Jarjue said.
Jarjue said the Institution has the capacity to handle government projects and deliver better than expected.
“It is only in the Gambia where ICT projects are given to outsiders. We have the capacity and have technical knowhow; if you cooperate with us we can make a difference.
“If they are spending 4million d
alasi a year, they can give us 20 million dalasi. We can take care of the entire nation’s ICT problem,” he said.
“According to the last survey conducted by the students, the MDI is one of the best places for learning. This is not a false statement since you can see it for yourselves,” he said, vowing that MDI will continue to improve every year.
Turning on the staff, Jarjue said: “The success of any Institution depends entirely on skills and willingness of its staff members and to retain those skilled personnel, there must be present a necessary incentive packages at all times. With the little resources at our disposal, the MDI has put in place a mechanism whereby a staff member is entitled to loans and other facilities such as purchase of land, building, vehicles and free education for our kids tenable at the MDI.”
On relationship with the UTG, he asserted: “It is very cordial although at the expense of the MDI. Honourable members, you may be interested to know that since 2009, all UTG School of Business concentrate on MDI campus here in Kanifing. Currently, we have more than 20 faculty members and about two thousand five hundred students from the UTG sharing with us the little resources we have like electricity, water, classrooms among others.
“We have no choice but to accommodate them because they have no place to go. For Gambia College, we will continue to collaborate with them in many areas and if possible we will continue to support them as well. Last year or so, we helped them with 50,000, 00 dalasi to renovate some of their classrooms.”
The Honourable Yahya Gassama, chairperson of the education committee and member for Kiang East, asked if they plan to expand MDI to other regions in country but Jarjue said they cannot do that now because of the challenges they face.
