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Liberia: CBL Grants Licenses to Two Banking Institutions
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The NEWS (Monrovia)
3 July 2008
Posted to the web 3 July 2008
Monrovia
The Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) has granted provisional licenses to AccessBank Liberia Limited and Guaranty Trust Bank Liberia Limited to operate as commercial banking entities in the country.
AccessBank is a commercial microfinance bank that will focus its activities on microfinance lending and provide financial services to the low income segment of the population.
A CBL release Wednesday said that AccessBank will also provide short and medium term lending to small and medium scale Liberian businesses.
The CBL said shareholders of the proposed AccessBank Liberia include institutional investors such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank, African Development Bank and European Investment Bank, while the majority shareholder is AccessHolding AG which is a joint stock holding company located in Germany.
"Based on negotiations the Central Bank held with shareholders, it was agreed that AccessBank Liberia will open with an initial paid-in capital of US$6 million consistent with the policy of the CBL to set the minimum capital of banks operating in Liberia at US$6 million by the end of December 2008," CBL said.
The Central Bank explained that majority of the members of the Board of the proposed bank will reside in Liberia and there will be Liberian participation in equity stake in the bank in the future.
At the signing ceremony, the release said, CBL Governor Dr. J. Mills Jones welcomed the cooperative spirit of the shareholders of AccessBank Liberia which, he said, has brought the idea of establishing a bank that will focus on microfinance.
Dr. Jones pointed out that the CBL has worked tirelessly on the bank project because of the firm belief that expanding access of the poor to banking services was crucial to fighting poverty in Liberia and to growing the private sector from the bottom up.
The CBL Governor added that a viable and thriving microfinance industry will promote economic growth and creates employment.
For her part, the Advisor and Project Manager of the proposed bank, Ms. Mary Clare Odong said AccessBank Liberia is an international development oriented financial institution which aims to have an impact in Liberia.
"We look forward to starting operations in Liberia and providing access to responsible banking services to the microfinance sector in Liberia," Ms. Odong said.
She observed that after years of civil war and economic breakdown, Liberia's micro and small enterprise sector has started to recover, adding "AccessBank Liberia will cater to the needs of the small people and provide them with much needed financial services to grow their businesses."
She commended the Government of Liberia and CBL for the support, and noted that AccessBank hopes to start operation before the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the proposed Guaranty Trust Bank Liberia Limited
has agreed to start with an initial capital of US$10 million.
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The granting of a license to Guaranty Trust, the release noted, is consistent with the CBL's policy of expanding the banking sector and promoting competition in the sector for the benefit of the public and economy.
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