Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Standard Chartered Bank, Nigeria, and West Africa Cluster, Mr. Lamin Manjang, Reassures Staff and Clients.

By Landing Ceesay

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria, and West Africa Cluster, Mr. Lamin Manjang, has re-assured the staff and clients of the bank in the Gambia of an orderly process as they divest from the Gambia and seven other markets.

At a press conference held at the bank’s headquarters in Banjul on thursday, the CEO offered the following clarification and reassurance:

“It is important to clarify that the Bank is not shutting down its doors and leaving the country. The operations will continue normally until a new owner takes over the operations. But in the meantime, just to assure all stakeholders that this will be a very orderly process. It is a process that can take between one to two years and therefore in that period everything will continue as normal. The staff will continue to be employed by the bank, all their benefits are assured and nothing will be reduced from that, the clients will also continue to be served as they have been in the past.

“The decision for exiting this market was based on a strategic decision that was taken by the group to re-focus our resources, our attention to markets where we see growth and scale opportunities. Hence we will be selling the shareholding of Standard Chartered Bank to strategic investors who will own the majority shares,” Mr. Manjang told the Journalists.

When asked whether the name Standard Chartered will continue to be used in the Gambian markets once the sale is completed, Mr. Manjang said the brand will no longer be in the market but the operations will continue as normal.

“The brand Standard Chartered will no longer be in the market, but the operations that are here in terms of the people, in terms of the clients, and in terms of the resources, will continue. We have had similar experiences in other markets. For instance, Standard Chartered used to operate in Nigeria for many years and it decided to leave Nigeria and sell its shares. The bank came to be known as the First Bank of Nigeria and that bank is still operating. It has a very large presence in Nigeria today. So really it is unprecedented in the fact that the Bank is refocusing its attention to somewhere else,” he said during a press conference on Thursday at their Headquarters in Banjul.

This press conference follows Standard Chartered Bank’s announcement last week of plans to divest from seven countries including The Gambia – five in Africa and two in the Middle East. The process is expected to take a year or two when potential investors are expected to step in and take over its assets and operations.