Sett Settal, the last Saturday of every month where the Gambian people are called on by their leader to clean their area, was carried out over the weekend once again.
One institution that took part in this month's cleansing exercise massively was the Standard Chartered Bank (SCB). The staff of the bank, led by the management, cleared the refuse from both in front of and behind their Westfield Branch and from the streets along the Kairaba Avenue.
Speaking in an interview with The Point during the exercise, Mr. Humphrey Mukwereza, CEO and Managing Director of the SCB, said that his company was just out to answer the call of President Jammeh to the people of The Gambia to clean up their environment. "It also happened that yesterday was World Malaria Day, where the world gets together to keep the spread of malaria at bay and for SCB Gambia this year we thought we should play our role and clean our environment which we find self operating", he stated.
He believes that the cleansing will definitely reduce the spread of malaria. He called on the people to change their attitude toward the environment by following a sound, sustainable environment management plan. He reaffirmed his bank's commitment by keeping its promise that was to "lead by example" and others can follow.
For his part, Mr. Wilfred Ntuba, Chief Finance Officer of the SCB described the exercise as an opportunity for the bank to further show the country that they are not only committed to making profit. They also want to ensure that they keep to their promise to be the correct partner for all stakeholders. According to him three million people died of malaria in Africa and a child dies of this disease every 30 seconds.
The bank have what they call a Volunteering Day in which the staff don't go to work in the bank instead they do volunteer work while still being paid by the bank.
He thanked the staff of the bank for coming out in large numbers to actively participate in the worthy exercise.