Gambia

Economy & income

Currency

• Gambian dalasi (GMD, symbol D or 'D')
• ~73 D per USD (Jul 2026, ~$0.0137/D)

GDP per capita

• ~$752 nominal (2024, World Bank)
• ~$904 (2025 IMF est.)
• ~$3,445 PPP (2024, World Bank)

Average salary

• ~$150-220 net/mo est. (thin data)
• gross avg ~D16,000 ≈ $220/mo (Paylab, 2026)
• many formal jobs gross ~D8,000 ≈ $110/mo (TimeCamp, 2024)

Median salary

• n/a — no reliable median wage published
• GBoS reports aggregate public wage bill only, not household median earnings

Minimum wage

• ~D50/day (~D1,300-1,500/mo ≈ $18-20)
• dated sectoral rate for unskilled commercial/industrial labour, weakly enforced
• no comprehensive national statutory minimum wage

Cost of living

• Low
• Numbeo Banjul data is thin & expat/imported-goods-skewed (Sep 2025: single person ~D41,700/mo ≈ $570 excl. rent — well above local wage reality)

Digital landscape

Population

2.79 million (Jan 2025)

Internet users

45.9% (~1.28 million users)

Social media users

16.1% (~449 thousand identities)

Mobile connections

3.15 million connections = 113% of population

Devices

mobile ~59.4% / desktop ~39.4% / tablet ~1.3% (StatCounter, Jun 2026)

Ad spend

• Social-media ad spend ~$2.0M (2024, Statista)
• total digital ad market small & not broken out separately (n/a)

Top social platforms

Facebook ~449K, 16.1% — dominant

Instagram ~174K, 6.2%

LinkedIn ~160K, 5.7%

X/Twitter ~35.5K, 1.3%

• WhatsApp — near-ubiquitous messaging; no published ad reach
• TikTok — fast-growing among youth; no DataReportal ad reach figure

Messengers

• WhatsApp (default for chat/commerce)
• Facebook Messenger (~186K)
• IMO (popular for cheap diaspora calls)
• Telegram (minor)

Payments & behaviour

Payment methods

• Cash / cash-on-delivery (dominant for retail & e-commerce)
• Mobile money — Afrimoney (Africell) & QMoney (QCell)
• Wave (zero-fee P2P disruptor)
• Bank transfer & debit/credit cards (low penetration, mostly urban/formal)

E-wallets

• Afrimoney (Africell)
• QMoney (QCell)
• Wave
• APS Wallet
• Nafa

Cash on delivery

• High — cash-on-delivery is the default for online orders
• ~70% of e-commerce transactions are mobile-initiated
• digital payments only ~15% of retail (2024 est.)

E-commerce

• Low/nascent — total online commerce ~$30M (2024)
• much trade is informal social-commerce via Facebook/WhatsApp
• local store eBaaba plus international Ubuy
• no Jumia presence

Notes

• Card penetration low
• diaspora remittances are large (~20%+ of GDP) and increasingly flow through mobile money / MFS Africa rails
• cost of mobile money still a barrier to uptake

Audience & culture

Languages

• English (official, used in ads/business/education)
• Mandinka (~38% first language)
• Pulaar/Fula (~21%)
• Wolof (~18% — plus wide use as urban lingua franca)
• Soninke (~9%)
• Jola (~4.5%)

Religion

Muslim ~96%, Christian ~4%, traditional/other minimal

Median age

~18-19 years (18.4 in 2024; very young population, Worldometer)

Key seasons

• Ramadan & Koriteh/Eid al-Fitr (major spend & evening online peaks)
• Tobaski/Eid al-Adha (biggest gifting & livestock spend)
• Tourist high season Nov-Apr (European visitors, FX inflow)
• Christmas/New Year (minor, urban Christian & diaspora)
• AFCON / football tournaments (betting spikes)

Cultural notes

• Conservative Muslim, community & word-of-mouth driven
• radio and Facebook/WhatsApp are primary channels
• mobile-first but data costs are high (drives WhatsApp-status & offline-friendly creative)
• diaspora remittances heavily fund household consumption

Where to find creators

• Facebook
• TikTok
• Instagram
• YouTube
• WhatsApp status

Media landscape

Creators & public figures

Top creators

Jizzle ~238K Instagram / ~170K YouTube

Instagram/YouTubeAfro-pop musician — most-followed Gambian artist; telecom/brand endorsements

S

ST Da Gambian Dream ~229K Instagram

Instagram/YouTubeLeading rapper (@brikama_boyo) — youth/streetwear appeal

Sona Jobarteh ~43K YouTube; global touring artist

YouTube/InstagramKora virtuoso & cultural icon — heritage/premium & education tie-ins

J

Jaliba Kuyateh ~64K YouTube

YouTube'King of Kora' veteran bandleader — mass appeal, older demographic

F

Fatou Camara ~83K YouTube (The Fatu Network)

YouTubeJournalist & media entrepreneur — news/current-affairs reach

K

Killa Ace n/a (est. tens of thousands)

Instagram/YouTubeConscious/political hip-hop & activism — limited brand fit, strong youth voice

Celebrities

Omar Colley ~413K Instagram

Gambia national-team captain & defender (European clubs)

Yankuba Minteh ~193K Instagram

Winger, Brighton & Hove Albion — breakout young star

Musa Barrow ~135K Instagram

Forward (Al-Taawoun, ex-Bologna) — top Gambian goalscorer

Adama Barrow n/a (modest official social presence)

President of The Gambia since 2017

Jaha Dukureh n/a

Activist, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador — anti-FGM/child-marriage campaigner

Fatoumata Tambajang n/a

Politician, former Vice-President of The Gambia

Affiliate & traffic

Hot verticals

• Sports betting (football-led)
• Nutra / COD health products (potency, weight, joints)
• Mobile VAS & airtime/data subscriptions
• Finance — micro-loans, remittance & mobile-money offers
• E-commerce COD (phones, gadgets, fashion)
• Dating (cautious, hetero mainstream only)

Active networks

• No local networks — run via pan-African/global players: 1xBet & Mostbet partner programs (betting)
• Adsterra, PropellerAds/Monetag (pop/push)
• Dr.Cash & similar nutra/COD networks
• Facebook & Google as primary ad platforms

Payouts

• Tier-3 low: CPL ~$0.5-3
• betting first-deposit CPA ~$10-30
• nutra COD ~$8-20 net
• display/social CPMs very low (~$0.2-1)

Competition

• Low-to-moderate — small ~2.8M population and thin ad market mean cheap inventory but limited volume
• usually bundled into a wider West Africa/Anglophone-Africa buy

Seasonality

• Ramadan dampens daytime activity but lifts late-evening engagement
• Tobaski/Eid drive commerce
• AFCON & big football fixtures spike betting
• Nov-Apr tourist season adds FX/spend

Traffic sources

• Facebook (feed + status)
• TikTok
• Push/pop ad networks
• Google UAC / search
• WhatsApp
• Local influencers

Good to know

Capital

Banjul

Major cities

• Serekunda (largest urban area)
• Brikama
• Bakau
• Farafenni
• Banjul (capital)

Time zones

Single zone — GMT (UTC+0), no daylight saving

Android vs iOS

78% 22%

Android 78% iOS 22%

Phone brands

• Samsung (~31%)
• Apple (~22%)
• Tecno (~12%)
• Xiaomi (~6%)
• Huawei (~3%)
• Infinix/Itel (Transsion group — collectively strong, StatCounter Jun 2026)

Top e-commerce

• eBaaba (local marketplace)
• Facebook/WhatsApp social-commerce
• Ubuy (international shipping)
• AliExpress (cross-border)

Peak activity

Evenings ~19:00-23:00 local (GMT); much higher after Iftar during Ramadan; weekend daytime strong

Creative taboos

Islam/Prophet, alcohol & pork imagery, nudity/sexual content, LGBTQ themes, overt political criticism — all high-risk for creatives

Also worth knowing

• Very young, mobile-first, WhatsApp/Facebook-centric audience with high data costs — favour lightweight, video/status-friendly, COD offers
• large diaspora (UK, US, EU) funds remittance-driven spending and is itself a targetable segment
• football (esp. the rising national team) is the strongest cultural hook for betting & sportswear.