GTBank bags another international award
May 16, 2019
By Hassan Gbassay Koroma
MD/ CEO Ade Adebiyi (centre) standing with other executives of the bank
Guaranty Trust Bank (GTB) Sierra Leone has again been honoured with another international dubbed ‘West Africa Excellence in Retail Financial Services 2019, awarded by the Asian Banker Magazine, for using the best mobile banking application or programme for West Africa.
Addressing journalists in his Freetown Head Office, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of GTB Sierra Leone, Ade Adebiyi, said the bank is a commercial bank that has been operating in Sierra Leone for several years now.
He said over the years, the bank has deepened its products and services and also its activities in the Sierra Leone environment, noting that the bank has won several awards in recognition to the quality of their product and services.
He said the Asian Banker Magazine recently awarded them for the best mobile initiative application in the country, noting that the unique thing about the award was that it was not the best mobile initiative application for Sierra Leone, but for the whole of West Africa.
He said the award was not only promoting GTB, but the country as whole and even the West African sub-region, adding that they were very happy about the awards because they believed it was a testimony of relevant, hard work and quality services they are providing to their customers in the country.
He said the Asian Group started as financial institutions publisher in China, but their focus currently was to assess the performance of four hundred financial institutions in forty countries around the world, and in West Africa they assess the performance of commercial banks in about twelve to fifteen countries.
He said during the period under review, the organizers looked at the data from financial institutions in the country, noting that in the instance case they looked at financial institutions operating in Sierra Leone and it was based on the information they took from the data that prompted the award.
He said the award was given to his bank on the strength of many things and one of them was the uniqueness of the product, noting that there were lots of mobile banking solutions in the country but a lot of them depended on internet availability.
He said the uniqueness of the their GT-SIMPAY innovative product allows customers to interact directly with their bank account(s) and transact easily, using their mobile phone and that transactions are done faster and easier on a secured platform without any internet data required..
He said their customers can also do transaction by transferring money from one person’s account to the other at GTBank and other banks, adding that customer can also check their balance and buy airtime and pay utility bills.
He said the application plays a great role in decongesting the banking hall and makes banking process easier for their customers, adding that they also have lot of products they were working on that will also help make banking easier for their customers in the country.
He said they currently have over twenty thousand customers using the GTsimpay application,and that they were aware of the cyber issues which was why they have put everything in place to make sure that their customers are safe from hackers.
The Asian Banker runs the most prestigious awards programmes in the industry, covering the full spectrum of topics and areas that constitute the financial services.
The reason for the prestigious nature of The Asian Banker awards is the independence, rigor, impartiality and transparency of the evaluation process.
The award programmes are run by a team or research managers who conduct extensive desk and field research, including many hours of interviews with short listed candidates. Each programme is predicated by a clear methodology and transparent score cards which are published and shared with the Industry