The Insurance Association of The Gambia (IAG) on Tuesday launched its website - www.iag.gm - designed to provide information to the general public about the association and the operations of insurance and insurance policies.  
After several unsuccessful attempts over the years, the IAG is now represented on the ‘World Wide Web’, which allows information dissemination to a wider audience both in and outside country.  
“The website is now functional and the content more au fait with the technology-driven environment that we are living in today,” Mr Dawda Sarge, president of the IAG, said on Tuesday in Banjul while officially launching the website, which was developed and designed by New Century Limited, a newly established Gambian-owned ICT consulting firm.
“The website is not only going to be for domestic consumption, it’s going to be worldwide and it’s also going to be connected to social networking websites like Face book, Twitter, Linkedin, etc, because we want to disseminate information that we have as far and wide as possible.”
Launching of the website, which is part of series activities marking the weeklong insurance awareness week that started on Monday, is a step towards erasing the poor public image that The Gambia insurance industry has been suffering from over the years despite the critical roles that it plays in economic development.  
 “The site is a work in progress initiative,” said Mr Sarge, who is also the managing director of Prime Insurance Company. “It’s not going to be launched today and that is it - we fold our hands.  It’s going to be responsive to the needs of insurance companies and the general public.”  
He told the insurance practitioners to feel free to access the site and give feedback to the IAG secretariat or the creator of the site, New Century.
The launching of the website marks a quantum leap by the IAG towards the fulfillment of its aim and objective of “promoting the development of insurance services and to provide insurance education with a view of increasing awareness to enhance the public image of the industry.”
For Mr Jawo, launching the website is an achievement that the ‘association is very proud of’.  “We were proud because we are launching the website to avail our member companies the opportunities to sell themselves and their products, and feed the insuring public about the insurance products available and about the industry in general,” he said.
The website is a very useful link between the association, stakeholders in the economy, policymakers, and the outside world including insuring public, such that both can share information and establish communication channels that will enable  us to achieve the very useful mission that has been charged to the IAG, which is to create and maintain a closer cooperation between members and provide a forum to resolve matters of mutual interest leading to the promotion of insurance education to avail the insuring public the best of services for their benefit thereby contributing to national development.
In a related event, as part of the insurance awareness week, on Monday the IAG held a sponsored walk that started at the branch of the International Insurance Company at Kairaba Avenue, going through Westfield to Serrekunda and ended at the head office of The Gambia National Insurance Company on Kairaba Avenue, where a statement was delivered by the secretary general of the IAG, Mr Jawo.
The IAG’s insurance awareness week is an annual weeklong sensitisation campaign that seeks to further increase the general public’s understanding of insurance and insurance policies in order to lay foundation for building a trusting relationship between insurance providers and the public.