The Government of The Gambia, (GoTG) through Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs (MOFEA)has received a Loan from the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in the amount of US$ 27.32 million towards the implementation of the National component of the ECOWAS Regional Backbone and e-Governance Program (ECOWAN)- in The Gambia – “ECOWAN –The Gambia Project”. The Loan will be used to fulfill payments for goods, works, and consulting services which will be procured under this project, as follows:

1. Consultancy Services Ref:ECO-GAM/01/SERV/2011
i. Detailed review of the technical feasibility study (recently carried out by GAMTEL), network Infrastructure design, and bid document preparation and evaluation for the development of a proposed National fiber optic Backbone, (ECOWAN–Gambia links) – 817 km fiber optic links and a Wimax last mile access network in Banjul.
ii. Upon satisfactory completion of the above tasks, consultant may be contracted to supervise works (construction and deployment of fiber optic and WIMAX network) and commissioning of ECOWAN-Gambia project.
2. Consultancy Services Ref: ECO-GAM/02SERV/2011
i. Perform market demand/traffic assessment of wholesale ICT services (telecoms/internet - in particular broadband services) in The Gambia.
ii. Examine and determine pricing structures (taking into account Open Access Regime) and mechanism using different models for the ICT sector (in particular broadband services),.
iii. Prepare a competitive business model and a Strategic Business Plan to enable the successful transition of Gamtel into an NGN environment, including implementation timelines.
3. Works Ref: ECO-GAM/01WORKS/2011
i. Engineering design, construction, and deployment of the national component of the ECOWAS Regional Backbone infrastructure and eGovernance platform (ECOWAN program) in The Gambia(ECOWAN– The Gambia links) – 817 km fiber optic links (Next Generation Network - NGN)and a Wimax last mile access network in Banjul.
ii. Supply and installation of associated power supply equipment (Generators, rectifiers, solar panel, inverters, battery etc) across various locations (16) along the fiber optic route to activate the above NGN network.
The executing agency is Gambia Telecommunications Company Limited (Gamtel), in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Communication.
Procurement of contracts financed under the project will be conducted through the procedures specified in the Islamic Development Bank’s Procurement Guidelines for the Use of Consultants (May, 2009). Consultancy Services will be procured through a short list of qualified international Consultants under International Competitive Bidding (ICB), using Quality and Cost Based Selection method (QCBS).Works component will be procured by Limited International Bidding (LIB) in accordance with the Islamic Development Bank’s Procurement Guidelines.