The Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB) has opened a new branch in Waterloo on Monday 20 November 2017. According to the Chairman of Western Rural District Council, Alhassan Cole, the establishment of an SLCB branch in his District is one of his greatest achievements in six years. The Managing Director of SLCB, Idrissa Alooma Kamara, disclosed they decided to relocate the Bank from its previous location as a result of the Toll Road extension that is going on from Wellington to Masiaka and also based on the 2015 Census report that stated the registered voters for that District to be over 220,000 people.
“Very soon we will banking facilities in all the surrounding towns within the Western Rural” he said, disclosing that they have launched a project from now till end of 2018 to have capture at least 50,000 customers within Waterloo and its environs. The MD described Waterloo as the gateway to Freetown and the provinces, which makes it very strategic towards the country’s economic development, appealing to business people and others.
Honourable Claude Kamanda of Constituency 095 said the opening of the Bank’s new branch shows they are in Waterloo to stay, explaining that Waterloo and Western Rural are the fastest growing districts in the country.
According to Kamanda, SLCB has contributed to the economic transformation of the people within Waterloo by providing security for their monies and also made available loan facilities.
Officially opening the new branch, the Chairman of the Oversight Committee at the Bank of Sierra Leone, Tapsiru L. Dainkeh, said there are 14 banks in the country of which only four are locally owned, two of which are partly owned by the government.
SLCB and the Rokel Commercial Bank (RCB) are government-owned, disclosing that SLCB is the biggest financial institution in the country.
AMK/20/11/17
By Alhaji M Kamara
Tuesday November 21, 2017.