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Reliance Financial Services Joins Gambia’s Financial Industry

The vision of Reliance is ‘to be the leading and preferred financial services provider for the mass individuals, small and medium size businesses and micro enterprises in West Africa”.

Our mission is to deliver innovative, value added products to our customers using state of the art technology in an environment conducive to promoting strong organisational culture and values which enable us to attract, nurture and retain talented staff. We will uphold the principles of good corporate governance and implement effective risk management systems with a firm commitment to delivering sustainable and competitive returns to our shareholders while changing lives in the communities we serve.

The manner in which we conduct business with our customers, regulators, and other stakeholders will be governed by our corporate values namely:

Creativity
Approachability
Reliability
Professionalism
Ethics and
Teamwork

The above translate into the mnemonic CARPET which is fundamental to our service philosophy of delivering the RED CARPET treatment to all our customers regardless of their status, ethnic background, race, religion, or colour.

The company has three sets of investors (collectively the “shareholders”) investing GMD30 million in the equity capital for the establishment of Reliance. The first group is made up of the founders and management team (Messrs Baboucarr Khan, Ismaila Faal and Seedy A. B. Njie).

The second group comprises six individual shareholders and the third group is made up of the two international investors: ShoreCap International Limited based in Chicago, USA (www.shorecap.net), and Triodos International Fund Management from the Netherlands, (www.triodos.com). Both Shorecap and Triodos are private equity investment companies that invest in existing small business and microfinance banks in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America.

According Baboucarr Khan, Chief Executive Officer of Reliance, “Reliance is the first ever start up investment by both Shorecap and Triodos which also marks their entry point in the West African sub-region”.

Reliance’s strong workforce consists of 34 Gambian professional employees who possess diverse qualifications and experiences to complement each other as necessary. Among Reliance staff there are six graduates from the University of The Gambia; three graduates from universities in the UK and USA; nine staff members with Advanced Level Diplomas, ACCA part qualifications (but equivalent to Diploma) and Higher Teachers Certificates from the UK and various Tertiary Institutions in The Gambia; six are still developing themselves academically in Accountancy, Business Studies and Sales & Marketing.

Fundamental to Reliance’s mission is the democratization of finance services by making sure that every individual who is economically active has access to financial services, open a bank account for savings and, by extension, the access to loans to start, develop and grow businesses.

Ismaila Faal, Chief Operating Officer, Reliance Advised, “As a result of this financial inclusion policy, Reliance has set the minimum opening balance for savings accounts at D100, the lowest in the financial services industry in The Gambia. Reliance will also extend loans from D300 to D1,500,000”.

Reliance’s target market also include individual workers and professionals, butchers, fish monger, fruit & vegetables sellers, spare parts dealers, building material merchants, cement retailers, General Merchandise Retailers, Convenience Stores, Restaurants, Welders, Carpenters, Electricians, Tillers, Telecentre, Fashion Shops, Hair Salons & Barbers Shops, Tailoring shops, labourers, Domestics workers, market stall owners