In collaboration with the West African Monetary Institute under the West African Monetary Zone Monetary Integration Programme, the Central Bank of The Gambia has embarked on the modernization of the country’s payments, clearing and settlement system infrastructure.The development is part of a regional payments system initiative and forms an integral part of the prerequisites for effective West African monetary integration. As part of this project Unique Solutions Ltd (The Gambia) was awarded the following tenders:

PROCUREMENT OF NETWORK UPGRADE AND RECONFIGURATION IN THE GAMBIA 

PROCUREMENT OF INTERNET AND METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK (MAN) IN THE GAMBIA 

PROCUREMENT OF IT ROOMS ENERGY UPGRADE IN THE GAMBIA

The graduation ceremony today marked the completion of the 1st Phase of mobile phone and entrepreneurship training program under the umbrella of rLG (Ghana), Unique Solutions, GAMJOBS (Gambia Priority Employment Programme) under the Ministry of Trade, Regional Integration Industry and Employment (MOTIE), The Gambia Chamber of Commerce and UNDP.

The overall goal of the program was to equip unemployed Gambian youth with specialized skills in mobile phone repairs and entrepreneurship. 70 students who graduated had trained over a period of 6 weeks at Unique Solutions Technology Centre.

Following the success of the first phase of the mobile repair training program, rLG (The Gambia) and Unique Solutions Ltd have entered into an agreement to set up the first mobile phone and computer assembly plant in The Gambia. rLG Communications CEO, Mr. Roland Agambire committed $2 million to set up offices and business operations in The Gambia. Speaking during the recent graduation ceremony Mr Agambire commented "It is our firm hope that the people of The Gambia will rise up and take ownership of the rLG brand. I urge you to buy rlg shares when we float them on the stock market. I call on you to share in rLG's strong vision of growing technology in West Africa to export to the rest of the world".

Unique Solutions Ltd announced today it has achieved Select Certification from Cisco. The Select Certification recognizes Cisco® resale channel partners that focus on meeting the technology and services needs of small businesses. “The Cisco Select Certification was created in response to customer demand for channel partners capable of designing and implementing Cisco solutions purpose-built for small businesses,” said Andrew Sage, vice president of Worldwide Small Business Sales at Cisco. “With the Select Certification, Unique Solutions Ltd has made an investment in obtaining the training, skills and knowledge necessary to play a pivotal role in meeting this growing demand.” To earn Select Certification, Unique Solutions Ltd fulfilled the training and exam requirements for the Cisco Small Business Specialization. Unique Solutions Ltd also met the personnel, training and post-sales support requirements set forth by Cisco.

Unique Solutions today celebrated the successful completion of all three LOTS of the WAMZ-CBG Payment System Infrastructure Project.These were:

PROCUREMENT OF NETWORK UPGRADE AND RECONFIGURATION IN THE GAMBIA

PROCUREMENT OF INTERNET AND METROPOLITAN AREA NETWORK (MAN) IN THE GAMBIA

PROCUREMENT OF IT ROOMS ENERGY UPGRADE IN THE GAMBIA

Unique Solutions officially handed over the sites to The Central Bank of The Gambia after the completing training. We will continue to provide technical assistance throughout the support period. Unique Solutions is very pleased with what we have achieved.

Unique Solutions has emerged as one of the winners at the just concluded Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship held in Nairobi, Kenya. In addition to the recognition the company received a prize of $50,000. Mr. Papa Yusupha Njie received the award on behalf of the company.

Commenting briefly upon receiving the award, Mr. Njie said "I Thank Allah the almighty for his continued guidance and benevolence. A big thank you also to my great family and the same goes to the board, management and staff of Unique Solutions. I am deeply honored and humbled for being winners at the Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship. All finalists were winners and stood out in their own way as a testament to what is good about Africa. These awards clearly demonstrate that there is indeed business excellence in Africa.

The ‘IBM is for You’ seminar held at The Coco Ocean Resort on the 22^nd of February was the first of its kind in The Gambia. The event organised by IBM Ltd and Unique Solutions Ltd, brought together managers, IT decision makers and various stakeholders from a cross section of businesses in The Gambia. The seminar was aimed at creating awareness of the IBM product portfolio which includes Software Solutions such as Tivoli Service Management and Solution Architectures, Systems and Servers and Storage Solutions. The event featured presentations by Mamadou Ndiaye, Country General Manager/Director General IBM Senegal, Mohamed Enis El Askri, Tivoli Sales Leader (IBM North and West Africa) and Bouna Salla, Software Architect Leader (North and West Africa).

The advent of undersea Fibre Optic Cables has changed the game at all levels and the advent of the upcoming ACE cable is the opportunity that the Gambian private telecom sector is looking to take advantage of in partnership with the Government of the Gambia.

We are extremely excited about the coming year as there are already signs of great positive changes in the entire market. Most notable among these is the operation of the ACE Submarine Cable which has already landed in The Gambia and the go live date is December 19th 2012, bringing a liberalized gateway for reliable, cheaper and abundant internet bandwidth.