By Amin Kef Sesay
With the world transitioning from the use of paper currency to cashless transactions, giving convenience of safety and security from theft, the Management of the Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, the country’s largest profitable financial service provider, has urged customers to utilize the various digitalized banking services that it has incorporated to make banking easier and cheap for its customers.
Visa is among SLCB’s suite of electronic card-based money transaction services, which enables owners to engage in cash transactions, locally and internationally, from the ease of their homes or offices.
The Visa card, which was launched at the Freetown Golf Club earlier this year, has the distinct feature that can be used on POS devices and more than 20 million ATMs worldwide and also online to buy products and services.
The Visa Debit card works like cash, only better. They use funds directly from one’s bank account and is accepted worldwide. They offer quick, secure and convenient access to one’s money in person, online, overseas and over the phone.
SLCB also has on offer Western Union money transfer cards, SWIFT, which eases transfer of money for both business and personal purposes.
In taking financial inclusivity to the grassroots, many SLCB customers have said that the Bank’s community banking kiosks in Goderich, Wilberforce and Jui have been of great help to them. Meanwhile, to further ease banking activities for their customers, SLCB introduced the Africell mobile apps to enable their customers purchase goods and services and transfer money.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Sierra Leone reports that SLCB has consistently, over the past ten quarters, reported the highest earnings among all the country’s commercial banks, making it also the most profitable. In 2019, the Bank grossed more than Le100 billion (USD10 million) pretax profits.
In a brief chat with this reporter, the dynamic Managing Director of SLCB, Fidelis Turay, revealed that the Bank is making all these strides because of team work. “We are working as a team and we will work very hard to maintain the standard of the Bank and top position in the financial industry,” the MD noted.
