By Maimuna Sey-Jawo
At least 130 participants drawn from the Gambia Credit Unions which comprised of Managers and Volunteers Saturday wrapped up a three days Convergence that discussed way forward in strengthening Credit Unions in the country.
The event which is the first of its kind was organized by The National Cooperative Credit Unions of The Gambia, a ceremony held at its head office in Kanifing.
The theme of the event was “tackling emerging challenges for credit union suitability.”
Speaking at the opening ceremony, The General manager of NACCUG, Foday Sanyang expressed delight on the event which he described first of its kind.
Conceiving the event, he disclosed that “a committee comprising of NACCUG, and Credit Unions managers was tasked with working out the logistics of organizing this event including the funding, and this has shown that unity is strength”.
Giving the general overview of the event, Mr Sanyang said participants learned best practices from facilitators as the courses were designed exclusively to enhance their experience and professional skills in their daily tasks in the credit unions.
He added that they also learned about product development, governance in credit unions and ICT security and system fraud detection.
He thanked the credit unions movement in The Gambia for honouring the credit unions and volunteers conference.
Speaking at the side line of the event, Babucarr Joof, General Manager of the Gambia Teachers Credit Union, who is also one of the facilitators, said volunteers and managers are working towards achieving the same goal despite the fact that their function is different.
He disclosed that volunteers are responsible for providing strategic direction while managers are responsible for providing the transactional part of the relationship. Bringing these two parties together in a conference of this nature will help both sides to understand how they need each other and it is impossible for one side made the credit unions function without the other playing their role.