Honourable Fatoumata Jahumpa-Ceesay, Speaker of the National Assembly, Saturday officially inaugurated the Reliance Financial kiosk at the Albert market in Banjul at a ceremony held at the market.

The Albert market kiosk is the seventh outlet that Reliance Financial Services has established in its eight month of operation in the Gambia.

Speaking at the ceremony, Speaker Fatoumatta Jahumpa-Ceesay said that the inauguration of the kiosk is a manifestation of a fulfilled promise of taking banking to the door steps of every Gambian. She added that, the initiative is central to government’s development agenda under President Jammeh, who is resolved to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty by 50% by the year 2015.

The National Assembly Speaker pointed out that the inaugurated kiosk is of great significance to not only the Banjulians, but to the entire nation since the market serve as a central commercial centre. “The inaugurated kiosk is not only a savings outlet but, also a micro-credit outlet which a small and medium entrepreneur can benefit enormously from. I therefore would strongly encourage each and every one, especially women, to open and operate an account with the kiosk without further delay in a bid to realise your long dreams of accumulating wealth, accessing credit facilities that you require and deserve,” she urged.

While commending Reliance Financial Services for being pro-active and responsive to the needs of market vendors, Speaker Jahumpa-Ceesay challenged the stakeholders of the market to patronise the kiosk and make it more successful within the shortest possible time in a bid to enable them convert it into a full fledge branch.

Baboucarr Khan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Reliance Financial Services said, the Albert market kiosk which is approved by the Central Bank of The Gambia, is part of his company’s national expansion strategy and objective of taking banking services to the doorstep of every Gambian community.

According to him, the initiative is to enable the market stakeholders to save their daily earnings internally in the market. He revealed that, with a hundred dalasis, a passport photo size, an identity or voters card, a vendor can start operating an account.

He then assured the vendors of his company’s commitment to provide security personnel.

For her part, Mam Sai Njie Sanneh, Acting Mayoress of Banjul City Council (BCC), advised market vendors to operate an account and save their daily earnings with the kiosk.

Alhagie Musa Baba Leigh, Chairman of the market committee, who spoke on behalf of the vendors, expressed similar sentiments.

The ceremony was attended by National Assembly members, elders of Banjul, and a cross section of market vendors.

Honourable Fatoumata Jahumpa-Ceesay, Speaker of the National Assembly, Saturday officially inaugurated the Reliance Financial kiosk at the Albert market in Banjul at a ceremony held at the market.

The Albert market kiosk is the seventh outlet that Reliance Financial Services has established in its eight month of operation in the Gambia.

Speaking at the ceremony, Speaker Fatoumatta Jahumpa-Ceesay said that the inauguration of the kiosk is a manifestation of a fulfilled promise of taking banking to the door steps of every Gambian. She added that, the initiative is central to government’s development agenda under President Jammeh, who is resolved to achieve the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty by 50% by the year 2015.

The National Assembly Speaker pointed out that the inaugurated kiosk is of great significance to not only the Banjulians, but to the entire nation since the market serve as a central commercial centre. “The inaugurated kiosk is not only a savings outlet but, also a micro-credit outlet which a small and medium entrepreneur can benefit enormously from. I therefore would strongly encourage each and every one, especially women, to open and operate an account with the kiosk without further delay in a bid to realise your long dreams of accumulating wealth, accessing credit facilities that you require and deserve,” she urged.

While commending Reliance Financial Services for being pro-active and responsive to the needs of market vendors, Speaker Jahumpa-Ceesay challenged the stakeholders of the market to patronise the kiosk and make it more successful within the shortest possible time in a bid to enable them convert it into a full fledge branch.

Baboucarr Khan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Reliance Financial Services said, the Albert market kiosk which is approved by the Central Bank of The Gambia, is part of his company’s national expansion strategy and objective of taking banking services to the doorstep of every Gambian community.

According to him, the initiative is to enable the market stakeholders to save their daily earnings internally in the market. He revealed that, with a hundred dalasis, a passport photo size, an identity or voters card, a vendor can start operating an account.

He then assured the vendors of his company’s commitment to provide security personnel.

For her part, Mam Sai Njie Sanneh, Acting Mayoress of Banjul City Council (BCC), advised market vendors to operate an account and save their daily earnings with the kiosk.

Alhagie Musa Baba Leigh, Chairman of the market committee, who spoke on behalf of the vendors, expressed similar sentiments.

The ceremony was attended by National Assembly members, elders of Banjul, and a cross section of market vendors.

The African Development Bank (ADB) and the Government of The Gambia have provided UA 8,973,401 million (About US$12M) to contribute to poverty reduction, support diversification of rural income generation sources, provide increased access to financial services for SMEs and individuals, and build the capacity of Non-Bank Financial Institutions in the country.

Eighty-nine per cent of the funds would be provided by the ADB, 10 per cent by the Gambia government and the rest derived from other sources.

The funds will be ploughed into a scheme called the Entrepreneurship Promotion and Microfinance Development Project, which will be executed by the Social Development Fund (SDF), an agency established in 1998 with preparatory funding from the UNDP and seed money from the ADB to facilitate poverty reduction in the country.

On Tuesday the SDF launched the project at the Kairaba Beach Hotel, where members of the donors, the implementing agency and the beneficiaries dilated on the significance and methodology for seeing the project through.

The project concept is based on the strategies outlined in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper II (2007 – 2011) and falls within Pillar two: “Enhance the capacity and output of productive sectors” and Pillar three: “Improve coverage of basic social services and the social protection needs of the poor and vulnerable”.
According to a Lead Expert from the ADB, Ms Sunita Pitamber, who gave a background of the project, the project would train 24,000 individuals on entrepreneurship management, skills and business development of which 70% will be women.

She also said 14,345 new loans would be provided to MSMEs, 28 Microfinance Institutions strengthened and staff’s skills enhanced and 35 Innovations Grants disbursed among other targets.
Ms Pitamber added that the project was designed through extensive consultation and review both at the Country level and within the Bank.

“The design is based on the explicit need to increase rural and urban employment, to empower emerging and existing entrepreneurs to benefit from improving market and regional trade conditions, and to provide a conducive environment for economic growth,” she said.

In delivering the launching address on behalf of the Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs, the Permanent Secretary of the Department, Babucarr Jallow, said the SDF had been largely successful in achieving the objectives of the Poverty Reduction Project as verified by the Project Completion, and evidenced by the general awareness of its operations countrywide, the Beneficiary Assessment Study, and the Impact Assessment Cum baseline study carried out by Government and the SDF.

He said the project was designed to build upon the successes of the ADB supported Poverty 1 project and strengthen the SDF by supporting its transformation and refocused strategic programmes.
He added that to capitalize on the achievements, experiences, and lessons learned from the Poverty One project, government has decided to shift emphasis from the provision of social services as an end, to considering it as a means of enhancing the reproductive capabilities of communities in the fight against poverty.

“This is to say that Social services delivery will now be considered as one of the means through which poverty can be reduced,” he said, adding: “It is recognized that the key element of poverty in all its forms is lack of income.”

Other speakers on the occasion included Mr. Allasana Jitteh, Fund Manager of SDF; Helene Sow Dahou, Senior Microfinance Expert of ADB; and Madina Assouman, Technical Portfolio Manager, Microfinance Unit of UNCDF. Mr. George Thomas, Chairman of SDF, moderated the workshop.