By Mama A. Touray
Njillan Senghore, the General Manager of the Trust Bank Ltd, on Thursday, at a public forum organized by the government of the Gambia ahead of the independence celebration said The Banking sector has mobilized over D54 billion in 2022.
Speaking at a forum held at Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara Conference Centre in Bijilo on the theme Democracy a recipe for peace and development on financial as her area of specialization, Njillan said “In 2016 before the election the banking sector was able to mobilize a deposit of around D17 billion, this was just before the election today by the end of December 2022 we are talking about a deposit of mobilization worth D54 billion.
She continued that “There is a huge difference between seventeen billion and fifty-four billion and the credit for that is peace and stability.”
However, Director Njillan added that in her sector they had a loan book industrywide of four million dalasi just before the election and today financial intermediation is up to almost fourteen billion dalasi and this states that peace and stability are very important in the sector because it means that when people trust, they send more remittances to a particular country do more business.
She stressed that the Gambia is a small country but there has been GDP growth since 2022. This she said is backed by remittance inflow and the recovery in tourism as it has been seen that a lot of Gambians overseas and foreigners invest a lot in this country.
She noted that it is a collective responsibility to make sure that the country grows and helps the economy grow and that there is a need to make sure that people fulfill their obligations to keep the country safe and secure.
“We are a small economy that needs access to international correspondent banking relationships in other to be able to facilitate cross border payments but Gambia like many other African countries are facing severe risk to correspondent banking international banks. They do so because they do not feel that we have democratic structures or place to guarantee good cooperate governance structures, regulatory environment because of how we use the internet to castigate one another,” she lamented. Meanwhile, General Manager Senghore said democracy inspires economic growth, a robust democratic institution, and foreign direct investment are key drivers of economic growth, and a solid democratic institution is better equipped to absorb the benefits of foreign direct investment
