“Ndimbal”, a popular Wolof word meaning ‘help’, is at the heart of the product and allows eligible customers to access short-term financial support directly through the FirstBank Gambia Mobile App.
To access the service, customers must have a FirstBank salary account and meet other eligibility requirements.
Welcoming guests, Managing Director and CEO of FirstBank Gambia, Abenga O. Ajibola, said the bank has several products for salary account holders but turnaround time had been a major challenge.
“The turnaround time is a huge challenge for us as a bank, and that is why we looked for ways to make it easier for our customers to obtain this digital salary advance,” he said.
He noted that FirstBank Gambia is the first bank to roll out such an online lending platform on its mobile app. The product, he said, is for individual, retail and commercial customers with salary accounts, allowing them to borrow against their salary and repay within a maximum of two months.
“We pride ourselves as number one in everything we do. We are part of a big parent bank with more than $20 billion in balance sheet,” Ajibola added.
Deputy Accountant General at the Accountant General’s Department, Momodou Salifu Jatta, said he had been involved with the product development for some time and that government is happy with the initiative.
“It is really a very helpful product considering the hassle civil servants go through to secure small loans to make it from one end of the month to another. It is not easy,” Jatta said.
“This will greatly help civil servants or any other customer to quickly secure finances to sail through difficult times.”
Presenting an overview, Head of E-Business and Products at the bank, Ebrima Jammeh, described the launch as historic for both FirstBank Gambia and the banking industry in The Gambia.
“Today, we are launching a product that will revolutionize lending, especially emergency lending for salaried customers. First ‘Ndimbal’ is a salary advance product aimed at alleviating the stress customers’ face in accessing emergency overdrafts,” he said.
The digital product provides short-term cash advances against salary up to D20,000 for eligible salary account holders.
In his keynote address, Deputy Managing Director of First Bank Group, Ini Ebong, expressed delight at launching another product in The Gambia, recalling that he was recently in the country for the opening of the Brusubi branch.
“As we do this at FirstBank, we are part of a much bigger family. In The Gambia we may be small but we are a bigger institution and a leader in the retail space,” he said.
Ebong noted that in Nigeria, the group has almost 700 branches, over 350,000 agents, 45 million active accounts and 25 million digital customers who engage through its app.
“This gives you an idea of what we do in the retail space,” he said.
