Babajide Komolafe

The first bank in Gambia opened shop in 1894 and by 2000 four other banks had opened shops. Banking however remained at rudimentary stage  of ‘’tally number’’, with Gambians and the mass of tourists that pour into the country annually denied the convenience and comfort   of innovative banking  services  through information technology .

The  story is however changing with the  entry of Nigerian banks starting with  Guaranty Trust Bank PLC in 2002.

Before 2002, Gambia had five banks with 33 branches  namely Standard Chartered Bank,  Trust Bank (formerly Meridien BIAO), Arab Gambia Islamic Bank,  ICB (now Bank PHB  Nigeria) and First International Bank. But there was no Online Real Time banking, no electronic banking e.g internet banking, telephone banking, Automated Teller Machines or Point-of Sale.

Perhaps the five banks were deceived by the size and population of the country and hence underestimated the market opportunities for these banking innovations. Anyone  could have had  the same opinion about The Gambia.

Though small in size and population, with land mass of 11,300 square kilometers and population of 1.7 million people, Gambia is however blessed with ‘’location’’, and also a river from where it derives its name and probably itsexistencRiverGambia. It is bordered to the north, east, and south by Senegal, with a small coast on the Atlantic Oceanin the west. Its borders roughly correspond to the path of the Gambia River, which flows through the country’s center and empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

These critical features make the country a tourist attraction, with tourist flocking in from across the globe to enjoy the warm sunny weather of the country and most especially the lovely peaceful coast. In fact, getting a hotel accommodation can be near impossible during the peak tourism season which is from December to January.

The tourists brings with them loads of foreign exchange which drives the economy. Thus a significant amount of trade and businesses is driven by tourism in the Gambia. A notable example is the Gambian craft making industry, noted for exquisite beads and other artworks. Also, the unique positioning of Gambia coupled with the Gambia River creates and drives a significant volume of cross border as businesses and traders in the neighboring countries and especially those located south of Senegal found it more economical to import through Gambia.

Apart from location, one other factor that could facilitate tourism and cross boarder trade is banking innovations like Online Real Time banking and electronic payment. With these the tourist doesn’t need to carry cash around, and traders can easily and quickly effect payment for goods. But for many years the tourism and cross border trade in Gambia did not have access to these innovations, and thus a hidden potential for banking business waiting to be tapped.

And that potential attracted Nigerian banks to the Gambia. And within the space of eight years six Nigeria banks have berthed in the country either through acquisition or through establishment of subsidiaries.

The within this period the banks, namely Guaranty Trust Bank, Bank PHB, Access Bank, Oceanic Bank, Skye Bank and Zenith Bank had established a strong spread across Gambia with 27 branches. Driven by need to expand the market and making banking more accessible and comfortable for the Gambia  banking public these banks began to introduce electronic banking services and thus changed the banking landscape in the country.

At the fore front of the pioneering efforts is Guaranty Trust of Bank of Gambia, which indeed was the first Nigerian bank to recognised the hidden potential in the Gambian economy for innovative and information technologically driven banking services. ‘’We have made Outstanding achievements registered with Information Technology support to our business,’’  Lekan Sanusi, Chief Executive Officer of the bank told a group of  Journalists from Nigeria.

For example the bank pioneered Online-Real Time banking which made it possible for Gambians to access their accounts from any of the bank’s branches (now 15) irrespective of where the account is domiciled. The bank also blazed the trail in domestic money transfer with the GTBank ‘’Joni Joni’’ product. (Joni Joni means Quick Quick in the local dialect). That was in 2006. In 2007, it went fully blast becoming the first bank in Gambia to introduce electronic payment card, Automated Teller Machines, Point of Sales Terminals (POS), Telephone Banking, Internet Banking and GTB Electronic Notification Service, which made it possible for customers to receive statement of accounts by E – Mail.  And in 2009 it introduced Visa cards.

But other banks, particularly its Nigeria counterparts responded with similar electronic banking services and this heightened competition.

This coupled with the biting effect of the global economic crises on the Gambian economy forced prompted the management of the bank to explore other revenue generating avenue. Consequently, the bank discovered that the tourism sector needs an internationally recognized and accepted payment card and thus it applied to be a principal merchant or acquirer for Visa.

‘’It took us a while to convince Visa that there is enough market in Gambia to sustain such status. When they saw the number they were convinced and approved our application’’, Sanusi said. And thus the bank became the first and only Visa Card acquirer in Gambia. To consolidate on this, the bank deplored POS that accepts Visa cards in the major hotels and supermarket and also started issuing Dalasis Visa card. Dalasis is the local currency. Thus tourists visiting the country can now settle their expenses with their Visa cards, eliminating the need for cash.

These initiatives have paid off for the bank as reflected in its financial performance. In 2009, GTBank Gambia became the second most profitable bank with a profit after tax of D42.4 million. It also became the 3rd largest bank with a balance sheet size of D2.8 billion. Furthermore, the bank was one of the three banks that recorded profit in 2009 and the only bank that recorded positive growth in profit before tax.

Due to the impact of the global economic crisis, the remaining 13 banks either registered negative growth or loss in both profit and balance sheet. In its eight years of operations, GTbank Gambia was the only bank with consistent growth in all its key indicators of performance. The story of the bank indicates that there is a very ripe harvest for banking innovations in Gambia.