Gambiaj.com – (BANJUL, The Gambia) – The National Assembly on Monday opened its 2026 legislative year with a charged sitting marked by sharp exchanges on the floor, firm rulings from the chair, and a decisive legislative push to modernize The Gambia’s intellectual property regime.
At the center of proceedings was Attorney General and Minister of Justice Dawda Jallow, who re-tabled the Intellectual Property Bill 2025, arguing that the country could no longer afford delays in reforming the legal architecture governing ideas, inventions, and creative works.
Addressing lawmakers, Minister Jallow recalled that the Bill had already undergone its first and second readings in the previous legislative cycle and had reached an advanced stage at the committee level before being withdrawn.
He said the earlier withdrawal was necessitated by significant cross-referencing inconsistencies within the draft, which would have been too “painstaking” to correct during plenary consideration.
Following what he described as a full technical clean-up, the Ministry returned the revised draft to the Assembly. The bill now carries the 2025 designation, reflecting the time that elapsed during the redrafting process.
Centralizing Intellectual Property Administration
Minister Jallow framed the proposed legislation as both structural and urgent. At present, different categories of intellectual property rights, such as patents, trademarks, and copyrights, are administered by separate offices, a system he described as fragmented, slow, and burdensome for innovators and businesses.
The bill seeks to consolidate intellectual property services under a single institutional framework. According to the Justice minister, such consolidation would streamline registration processes, reduce administrative confusion, and create a more predictable environment for creators, researchers, and commercial actors.
He further underscored The Gambia’s international obligations, noting that the reform would strengthen compliance with commitments under the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO), and the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
AfCFTA Context and Market Expansion
Lawmakers who spoke in support of the bill linked the reform to The Gambia’s participation in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which opens access to a market of more than one billion people across the continent.
Members argued that without robust legal protection for inventions, artistic works, brands, and logos, Gambian innovators could be exposed to infringement in an expanded regional marketplace.
Stronger intellectual property safeguards, they said, would stimulate research and development, encourage entrepreneurship, protect consumers from counterfeit goods, and ensure that creators are fairly rewarded for their work.
The debate also reflected a broader recognition that intellectual property is increasingly central to economic competitiveness, particularly in knowledge-driven sectors such as technology, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, and the creative industries.
Procedural Momentum
In a procedural move that signaled broad support, the Speaker granted a motion, already seconded, to refer the bill directly to the Assembly Business Committee without further debate at that stage. When put to a vote, the “ayes” carried decisively.
Minister Jallow thanked members for advancing the legislation, noting that the substantive policy issues had already been canvassed during deliberations on the earlier version of the draft.
With the completion of the second reading, the Intellectual Property Bill 2025 now proceeds to detailed committee scrutiny, where lawmakers are expected to examine its provisions clause by clause before it returns to the plenary for consideration and possible passage.
The opening sitting thus set a reformist tone for the 2026 legislative year, placing legal modernization and trade competitiveness firmly on the assembly’s agenda.
