Gambia: Minister assures safe financial system

Gambia’s Finance minister has assured members of the country’s parliament and the Gambian people that there is need worry as far as running of the country’s financial system is concerned. The country’s Finance and Economic Affairs Minister, Mr Abdou Kolley, was forced to make this reassurance after parliamentarians raised concenred over various issues regarding the country’s 2010 budget, which was delivered on Friday, 18th December 2009.
”The Ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs is working hand in glove in monitoring the country’s economic and other related financial affairs,” he said, adding, ”The Central Bank of the Gambia is also monitoring activities and financial statues of all the commercial banks in The Gambia regardless of their origin.” There have been concerns about the extent to which the effect of global financial meltdown has affected teh Gambia. This concern is especially rife because of the high number of Nigerian owned banks that continue to proliferate in Gambia, many of which have recently been emersed in economic and financial mess. But despite addmitting that the country was minimally affected by the global financial meltdown in 2009, thanks to the fact that its financial institutions do not have direct links to the major banks in the developed world, the minister assured that there was no need to worry as everything was under control as far as present situations are concerned. ”The ministry and the Central Bank will not hesitate to close any bank that falls below the standard required for operation in the country,” he said. He reminded the parliamentarians of an earlier visit to the country by the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who made a sub region tour then in an effort to assure stakeholders that everything was normal back in Nigeria as far as the looming banking crisis that engulfed a number of its banks was concerned. The Gambian Finance minister reiterated that Nigerian banks operating in the country so far ”are qualified to continue operating.”