Licensed Forex Bureaus hold annual congress

The event held at Sonko Jileng Building in Churchill’s Town brought together representatives of licensed bureaus across the country, with election of a new executive led by President Momodou S. Jallow and Vice President Haddijatou Bah.

Speaking to the general membership, Louis Sarkis, outgoing president of ALFOB expressed delight while stating that the AGM is to take stock of the past year’s activities in which the executive discharged its stewardship responsibilities to the membership.

He added that there is still a call for bureau owners to take the attendance of general meetings seriously as well as participate and deal with the challenges the association faces.

“The association can only be stronger and more relevant to its members by constant interactions amongst ourselves. Otherwise, outside stakeholders will not take us seriously. You were all aware of the serious challenges we faced this year which warranted a series of general meetings held to address the issues.”

Mr. Sarkis further reiterated that the AGM is an important forum for all bureau owners to take stock of past activities and asses their strengths and weaknesses to map out the future.

He continued that according to their constitution, the executive must ensure the members adhere to the rules and regulations of the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG). He revealed that guidelines have been sent to all registered bureau members as a core requirement while adding that new guidelines have been issued again by the CBG.

He further reminded them that the constitution requires the executive to develop a good working relationship with CBG and the government, saying his executive has always been engaging the Central Bank for the interest of its members.

Giving his annual report, Mr. Sarkis stated: “On 12 April 2023, a letter was received from CBG with a heading, ‘Implementation of Reference Rate in The Gambia’, issuing a directive that all financial institutions should comply with CBG reference rate in all foreign exchange operations with immediate effect.”

He noted that the directive brought about significant distortions in the Forex market affecting bureaus as the settlements they received from principal agents resulted in losses for them.

Sarkis continued that since the directive was not sustainable to bureaus, his executive met the CBG Governor on 19th April 2023 and presented a spreadsheet sampling transactions of different products which showed the payout rates and settlement received and the resultant margin.