GTBank doles out D65,000 to ‘Smart Kids’ account holders

In a bid to contributing to building a brighter future for children of The Gambia, GTBank has continued to upkeep its business ethics by sharing with its ‘Smart Kids’ account holders to encourage parents to inculcate the habit of saving for their children. Guaranty Trust Bank on Thursday disbursed D65,000 to twenty ‘Smart Kids Save’ (SKS) account holders as a way of “rewarding them for their patronage as well as instill the habit of savings into children. Pic: Managing Director, Guaranty Trust Bank, Mr. Olalekan Sanusi At the presentation ceremony held at the bank’s Jimpex branch, five of the twenty awardees were given a cheque for D2,500 each, for being the first people to nurture the confidence and trust in GTBank to open the SKS account for their children, and the fifteen were awarded cheques for amounts ranging from D1,500 to D10,000, based on how the account is managed. SKS is one of GTBank’s superb accounts parents can use to save for the future of their children. It is designed to introduce kids to the habit of banking and to give them a sense of responsibility. The minimum opening balance of the account is D200. “These children and their parents were selected based on criteria,” Olalekan Sanusi, managing director of GTBank explained. “It’s is not based on how much money is in your account but how the account is managed. It is to award parents who every month, consistently, will put at least a token into this account and they don’t make any withdrawal; such parents need to be commended and encouraged. Parents who maintain very high level of balance in their [children’s] accounts and keep on adding more money are the ones we select to give them cash that they can add on to their SKS account. “It’s our own little way of contributing to build a brighter future for their children and also to encourage other parents to emulate them in building a strong future for the children of The Gambia.” He said further: “Also, we are awarding the five first people who opened the SKS account for their children because they are the first set of people who developed the confidence and trust in GTBank as earlier as 2002 to open the SKS account for their children with the aim of putting their children on a stronger footing. “What each of you as a parent is doing is of great significance to the development of The Gambia as a country. In simple economic terms, savings is key to economic development of any country.  Every income you earn and save something aside helps the economic development of our children and the country at large. This is so because, the level of savings in a country actually determines the level of investment that can take place in that economy; the level of savings in an economy actually determines the amount of money at the disposal of the commercial banks to lend to those who want to invest, and the level of investment in turn determines the level of economic growth in every economy. “Growth is a short term thing, consistent growth over a long period would lead to economic development and eventually development leads to eradication of poverty, and every government wants to put poverty into the dustbin and one way of putting poverty into the dustbin permanently is for every citizen to inculcate the habit of saving.” The message of GTBank this year is: ‘Let’s all of us inculcate the habit of savings’.  MD Sanusi says that though it is difficult sometimes to sustain, savings is good for a person and once the habit of saving has been developed it can be sustained propelled by the benefits and merits that are gained from savings, which range from salvaging one in a rainy day to being able to develop the seed capital for investment.  “It’s only a game of determination,” Olalekan Sanusi noted. With 15 branches across the length and breadth of the country, GTBank, the 3rd largest bank in The Gambia, has firmly positioned itself to meeting the banking needs of the people of The Gambia. In 2009, GTBank was the 2nd most profitable bank in The Gambia and is determined to meeting the banking aspirations of people across the length and breadth of the country. MD Sanusi again: “We have been in operation for about nine years now and this year we will be in our ten years of operation in The Gambia. The Gambian society has been very supportive of GTBank, as they continue to patronize the bank. “As we speak today GTBank is the third largest bank in The Gambia. We owe that to the Gambian people, who have developed confidence in us, because to patronise a bank there must be confidence that you have in the bank.”