Standard Chartered Bank exits the Gambia ending 128 years in the Country

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Standard Chartered Bank Kairaba Avenue Office

After 128 years in the country, Standard Chartered Bank is leaving the Gambia. The group has announced it is exiting several operations around the world, including the tiny west African nation to cut costs.

The bank said in a statement on Thursday that it will leave Angola, Cameroon, Gambia, Jordan, Lebanon, Sierra Leone, and Zimbabwe. Standard Chartered will also close its retail banking units in Tanzania and Ivory Coast, to focus only on corporate banking.

The bank said that it had taken steps across the group “fundamentally transforming its digital capabilities in its African markets”.

The move marks a major shift for Standard Chartered, which has been among the biggest European lenders to invest in the continent in recent years at a time when peers have been withdrawing.

Standard Chartered is a market-leading financial service brand in The Gambia. The bank has been operating in The Gambia since 1894 and was the first Bank to introduce Automated Teller Machines in the Gambia, with 12 ATMs that accept VISA, Mastercard, and CUP cards within the greater Banjul area. The Bank has 4 branches and 1 Agency in prime locations in Banjul, Serrekunda, Kairaba Avenue, Basse, and Senegambia.

Standard Chartered aspires to be the best international bank for its customers in the Gambia. The Bank has been rewarded with the Best Foreign Exchange Bank Award in 2013, 2009, 2008, and 2007 from the Global Finance and Bank of the Year Awards from the Banker in 2013, 2009, 2006, and 2009. In 2014 Standard Chartered Gambia won the Best Bank Award from Global Finance and the Banker of the year from EMEA Finance, the Bank said on its official website. 

It employs over 140 people, many of whom are women. Standard Charted Gambia Ltd employees are of different nationalities among senior management.

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Mr. Sainey M.K. Marenah is a Prominent Gambian journalist, founding editor The Alkamba Times and formerly head of communications at the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC) and Communications and PR Consultant for The Gambia Pilot Program, under Gamworks. Mr. Marenah served as the Social media Strategist and Editor at Gambia Radio and Television Services. He is also the Banjul Correspondent for Voice of America Radio. Sainey is a human rights and developmental journalist who has carved a strong niche particularly in new media environments in the Gambian media industry. Mr. Marenah began his career as a junior reporter with the Point Newspaper in the Gambia in 2008 and rose through the ranks to become Chief correspondent before moving to The Standard Newspaper also in Banjul as Editorial Assistant and head of News. He is a household name in the Gambia’s media industry having covered some of the most important stories in the former and current government. These include the high profile treason cases including the Trial of Former military chiefs in Banjul in 2009 to 2012. Following his arrest and imprisonment by the former regime of President, Yahya Jammeh in 2014, Marenah moved to Dakar Senegal where he continues to practice Journalism freelancing for various local and international Media organization’s including the BBC, Al-Jazeera, VOA, and ZDF TV in Germany among others. He is the co-Founder of the Banjul Based Media Center for Research and Development; an institution specialized in research and development undertakings. As a journalist and Communication Expert, focused on supporting the Gambia's transitional process, Mr Marenah continues to play a pivotal role in shaping a viable media and communications platform that engages necessary tools and action to increase civic participation and awareness of the needs of transitional governance to strengthen the current move towards democratization. Mr. Marenah has traveled extensively as a professional journalist in both Europe, Africa and United States and attended several local and international media trainings.

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