By Mama A. Touray
Babucarr Ousmaila Joof, manager of Gambia Teachers Union Cooperative Credit Union has moaned over the internet challenges facing the union as he pointed it out to be a macro infrastructural challenge to their cooperative credit union.
Mr Joof was speaking at the union’s silver jubilee celebration held on Tuesday at the GTUCCU premises saying his idea with the board is to capture in their current strategic plan to increase membership to 50,000 people, so “our offices will become more congestive, going forward we need to transfer those services to our mobile gargets; this is happening in other parts of the world.”
He quickly disclosed that it is seemingly impossible in the Gambia because “we have macro infrastructural challenges about internet.”
He said they want to digitalize their transactions because they are currently serving a membership of about 35,000 people, while operating from eight branches, paying salaries to 11,000 people and the statistics is approaching to 12,000 members who are receiving their salaries from them and they may not come and withdraw all their salary at once.
According to him, if the system is digitalized those who will come to operate, apply for loan and pay and opening new account, the school account manager the number of people in our premises are very high yesterday alone 983 people just within Kanifing alone and this is not sustainable to the board.