It is exactly one-year since Ebrima Mboob was appointed as Director General of the Gambia Immigration Department. DG Mboob took the baton of leadership from his predecessor Seedy M. Touray who was elevated to the rank of an Inspector General of Police (IGP) of the Gambia Police Force (GPF), thereby moving him away from the Immigration Department to serve another sister security institution in the country.
Mboob and his team continued from where his predecessor stopped and began to continue reforming, revitalizing and restructuring the operations of the Gambia Immigration Department in a bid to modernize and enhance the operational capacities of the Immigration, among others. Despite the challenges within this short period, Mboob registered impressive achievements at the country’s Immigration Department.
Below is a glance at the young and dynamic Immigration DG’s achievements since one-year ago.
Reflection on One-Year of Leadership under Director General Ebrima Mboob from 15th March 2024 to 15th March 2025
The twelve-month long journey has been an ecstatic moment of reforming, restructuring and revitalizing operational efficiency in the annals of GID history. Drawing a reflection on DG Mboob’s diverse wealth of experience during his United Nations Mission, and the administrative legacies he had garnered, a reflection on his accomplishments after one year of leadership is imperative for the measurement of impact and celebration of his dynamic leadership.
The GID in response to Pillar II of the Recovery Focused National Development Plan (2023-2027) “Governance Reform”, implemented its first-ever Strategic Plan (2019 – 2024). In the quest to achieve the goals of the said plan and under the SSR agenda and the RFNDP, GID has achieved the following under the leadership of Director General Mboob.
1. Policy and legal framework
The Gambia Immigration Department through its efforts to address critical gaps in the department’s legal and policy framework, improve accountability and strengthen the leadership management system of the institution to maximize its capabilities and capacities, continues to strengthen cooperation with DCAF to achieve the following objectives.
» Draft and validate the GIS 2023 Bill accompanied by a position paper and a comparative analysis of the 1965 Immigration Act submitted to the Ministry of Interior for Cabinet review and subsequent enactment by the National Assembly.
» Develop and validate the GID Gender and Sexual Harassment policy,
» Establish and restructure the Human Right Professional Standard Unit intended to promote professional conduct and enhance effective service delivery.
» Through its Gambia Commission for Refugees in collaboration with UNHCR the Mboob’s leadership completed an assessment of persons at risk of statelessness in The Gambia through revaluation of Ghana Town Residents and subsequently presented the report to the National Assembly Committee
» Administratively, the leadership of Ebrima Mboob developed analytical documents and templates for strategic transition management such as;
o The SWOT analysis.
o Risk analysis.
o Strength distribution plan to guide staff movement.
o Staff-to-task analysis on human and physical capability matrix.
o A comprehensive training assessment needs.
o Performance appraisal form.
o Transfers and redeployment plan.
» In line with Goal 10 of the Strategic Plan (SP) (enhancement of performance management framework), GID rolled out the performance appraisal form of its staff, for the first time in history, as one of the criteria for promotion, capacity development, and staff placement.
» During the course of the year under review, DG Mboob rolled out promotion of three hundred and eighty-six (386) officers from March to October 2024 taking into account appraisal reports from supervisors. Two hundred and forty (240) junior officers were promoted in July while one hundred and forty-six (146) senior officers were promoted in September. This giant step from the GID management is meant to motivate officers in various offices across the country.
» In the promotion of gender parity, the GID leadership increased female representations in decision making from 4% to 21%,
» The leadership also conducted right placement of officers in line with skillset, qualification and expertise in a bid to improve performances and efficiency, futher targeting engagements with cashiers and operation commanders to boost revenue collection and minimized revenue misappropriation
»
2. Revenue performance
The issuance of some immigration documents such as national ID cards, alien cards, and residential permits had been affected in 2024. However, the GID has not relented in its efforts to generate revenue for the government resoundingly. From April to October 2024, GID was able to collect two hundred and four million, six hundred and fifty-six thousand, two hundred and thirty-five Dalasis (D204,656,235) while during the same period in 2023, a total of one hundred and twenty-one million, three hundred and twelve thousand, seven hundred and forty-six Dalasis (D121,312,746 was collected for the government, representing an increment of sixty-nine percent (69%) in revenue performance.
At the end of the fiscal year 2024, GID’s Revenue collection raises from 317 million in 2023 to 420 million dalasi. This significant achievement is attributed to the strategies and measures taken by the leadership putting proper fiduciary management efforts in place, utilizing staff strength, strengthening revenue monitoring mechanisms, and enforcement of immigration activities throughout the country.
3. Strategic transitional management
Under the leadership of DGI Mboob, there have been massive transfers and postings mainly affecting officers who had served for the longest of time at a designation. These transfers and postings are strategically done to stabilise the department, address operational and administrative gaps, and streamline the workforce without any adverse or retrogressive reactions from the officers affected. This decision was informed by the recommendations and strategic advice made during the M&E conducted by the Research, Policy, and Planning unit, creating room for the de-congestion and right-sizing of staff based on skills set and competence. Specifically, DG Mboob championed a Deployment of 546 officers with a five-year and above determining criteria.
4. Strengthening bilateral cooperation and partnership
The Gambia Immigration Department had signed series of bilateral agreements to ensure mutual cooperation with countries and international organisations in specialized areas relating to capacity building, migration management, and operational intelligence. In the quest to achieve the strategic objectives of goal four of the Strategic Plan, GID under the visionary leadership of DG Mboob has conducted a series of study tours to strengthen already existing bilateral ties and developed several concept notes for possible cooperation with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Qatar and Russia to forge partnerships in various areas of development.
Moreover, baking of the strategies laid to foster bilateral cooperation in the sub-region, the Director General Immigration for the first time hosted the Heads of Immigration (HOI) forum in Banjul for ECOWAS member states geared towards accelerating the implementation of ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card (ENBIC) and the abolition of 90 days stay for community citizens. The forum is also aimed at enhancing existing synergies among HOI for ease of enforcement of regional instruments relating to the movement of persons. By virtue of hosting this historic event, DG Mboob assumed the Chairmanship of the HOI taking over from the Comptroller General of Nigeria Immigration Service.
5. Creation of the GID Social Media Accounts: (Facebook, Youtube and TikTok Platforms)
Most of the engagements undertaken by the GID remained unnoticed by the general public due to the lack of a conventional communication platform. Underscoring the relevance of effective communication and importance of the Access to Information Act of The Gambia, the GID created an official Facebook platform for the dissemination of information to enhance public awareness by updating its followers of all ongoing activities and programs of the department. This initiative is in line with goal nine of the SP on awareness creation. Comments made on this platform are constantly monitored by its system administrators allowing the department to know public reactions to the department’s activities.
Additionally, suggestion boxes are dispatched and affixed in document issuing centres that are highly visited by the general public to gather employees, visitors, and applicants’ opinions submitted anonymously on the effectiveness of services provided by the department and the general handling of its customers.
6. Border control and management/ internal security
· In realms of border management and control, 350 prohibit immigrants were repatriated in 2024. Of this, 62 were convicted and deported. Additionally, 1,627 Aliens were refused entry at border entry points. These exercises were meant to mitigate crimes and ensure safety for every citizen and resident of the Gambia.
· In continuous efforts to curb irregular migration and safeguard the lives and livelihood of Gambian citizens, 677 would-be irregular migrants were intercepted at sea. A total of 56 suspected smugglers were arrested, investigated, and prosecuted for offences contrary to Section 31 of the Immigration Act of 1965.
· The GID registered about 16,473 Aliens and Non-Gambians with collection of 95,384,300.00 revenues from residents and work permits fees.
· In the process of digitalization and E-border capacity expansions, 7 official border locations are manned with MIDAS installation through the support of IOM, and robust deployment of SECURIPORT border management system at the BANJUL INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT. The GID has equally built 3 border locations (Farafenni, Amdallai and Giboro) through funding from Japan and coordination with GTBoard and IOM for expansions.
7. Capacity Building/training
GID personnel have benefited from numerous local and overseas training in different immigration-specialized areas to close the human resource capacity gaps for the effective and efficient discharge of their statutory mandate. Through the support of the government and development partners, 66 local trainings were conducted benefiting 909 immigration officers whereas 8 overseas trainings were received involving 30 officers in various areas of specialization.
» The local trainings include Document Security, SoP on Handling of Migrants Cases, Trafficking in Persons, MIDAS Training for Border Officials, Resource Persons training on Irregular migration, Technical Workshop on the Implementation of the ECOWAS Biometric I.D Card, Training on Border Surveillance and Territory Control by the Spanish Guardia Civil, Training of Trainers on Gender Main-streaming by DCAF.
» The overseas trainings include; Transnational Organised Crimes, Human Rights and Human Trafficking Crimes, Intensive Spanish learning course training in Spain, Child Protection Pilot Course, IOM Training of Trainers in Rwanda and Somalia, and West Africa Regional Training on Cybercrime in Egypt.
8. Construction and renovation of Immigration Offices
Critical infrastructural development was also advanced during the period aimed at creating the much-needed working environment for staff performance. The construction of Sanyang and Kalagi Immigration stations is at the completion stage. In addition, the construction of Panchang and Banjul immigration stations is also underway and steady progress has been made.
9. Revitalisation of community engagement activities
Community engagement is one of the key strategic operational activities undertaken by the department in ensuring that communities have their voices heard. Community engagement activities have been resuscitated as stipulated in goal nine (9) for awareness creation and bridging the communication gap between the department and communities. The community engagement unit in collaboration with the Public Relations Office has since then been conducting radio talk shows on Poliso FM and Star FM to sensitize the public on GID’s mandate, implementation and reform. Airtime has also been secured on MTA Gambia TV for bi-weekly TV show commencing in April 2025.
Additionally, Regional Commissioners have been holding sensitization sessions with border communities on immigration functions and efforts to mitigate irregular migration and cross-border crimes to enhance national security.
CHALLENGES
Despite the unprecedented successes registered by Director General of Immigration Ebrima Mboob and management, there exists challenges that affect the ongoing reforms and strategic leadership direction. Among these challenges include:
1. Inadequate budget allocations,
2. Inadequate fleet for operations,
3. Befitting structure for the Immigration Headquarters,
4. Expansion of identity cards issuance centres across regions, and
5. Decentralization for passport processing centres and deployment of electronic systems for the processing of documents.
“As we draw reflection on this one-complete year of strategic leadership, the Director General of Immigration Ebrima Mboob extends appreciation to The President of the Republic of The Gambia, H.E Adama Barrow for the trust and leadership, Minister of Interior Abdoulie Sanyang and Cabinet Members, National Assembly members, bilateral partners such the Governments of Italy, Switzerland, Germany, and Spain; international organizations such as IOM, DCAF, Guardia Civil and CoP Gambia; national partners: NAATIP, GPF, NSA, GAF, Regional Commissioners and Staff of GID, and all other institutions that continue to support GID’s reform agenda.”
May Allah continue to bless an guide you director general ❤️💯