Reliance clocks one

Reliance Financial Services Company Limited, a leading non-banking financial institution in The Gambia, clocked one, yesterday, in its noble ambition to providing financial services to mainly small and medium-size enterprises and entrepreneurs in the country.

The institution, out to change the lives of the common business and micro-finance operators in the country, opened its doors to members of the public on 19 December 2006, having received its full and official non-bank financial institutions license from the Central Bank of The Gambia on 11 December 2006.

"Reliance has always aspired to provide comprehensive, swift financial services to cater for the needs of the small, medium and micro-enterprises as well as the ordinary Gambians," Reliance’s CEO Baboucarr Khan said yesterday in an exclusive interview with the Daily Observer.

"And in this regard I think we have registered a significant milestone," he continued. "In our first year of operation, not only did we provide services in the form of taking deposits and giving out loans, but we were able to secure a full foreign exchange licence from the Central Bank as well, which allows us to buy and sell foreign exchange in order to provide and support the international trade requirements of our chosen markets, at a limited scale."

Highlighting some of the achievements in their first year of operation, CEO Khan said Reliance was the first non-banking institution in The Gambia to be appointed as a direct agent of Western Union, as well as being the 4th financial service institution allowed by Western Union to send and receive money around the world.

"One of the significant achievements worthy of mention here is the realisation of our promise at the beginning, which was to provide access to financial services to all Gambians regardless of their geographical locations, professions, tribe, religion, or race," Mr Khan noted.

He also said that within the last 12  months or so, Reliance was the first to meet the banking and other financial-related needs of the people of Lower Niumi by starting with a kiosk, which has graduated to a well-built complex.

Reliance staff strength, he explained, has grown from a start-up 25-member staff to 70 employees in the course of its first year of operation.

"I think the locations of our kiosks in all the key markets within the Greater Banjul Area has demonstrated our commitment and dedication to providing easy reach and access to the unbanked," he said, adding:

"To date, we have touched almost all the sectors of the economy, ranging from the fisheries sector, the re-distributive trade, the importation of basic merchandise from Dubai, China, and other Asian countries, the transportation sector, the vendors in the market, the women in horticulture and gardening, the seamstresses, and the tailoring business, just to mention a few."

The CEO of Reliance also commended President Alhaji Dr Yahya Jammeh and his government, especially the Department of State for Finance and Economic Affairs and the Central Bank of The Gambia, for providing "the most conducive of environments" which allowed them to operate and change the lives of Gambians through the provision of lucrative financial services.

He also thanked the shareholders, the board of directors, the management and staff of Reliance for their invaluable support to the company.

"My appreciation and thanks also go to our dear customers who have patronised our services and products," he said, pledging Reliance’s continued commitment to serving their holistic needs with more splendid innovative services and products the in coming years.

He added that Reliance will be presenting to their customers who may be lucky to win their raffle draw, a host of wonderful gifts, which include a sum of D25,000, mobile phones and a lot of other items, as part of celebrations marking their 1st anniversary.