By Alfred Koroma
As part of celebrating fifty-years of banking services, Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, one of the oldest banks in Sierra Leone has during the weekend unveiled its Hall of Fame, honouring past and present staff of the Bank.
Established in February 1973, Sierra Leone Commercial Bank (SLCB) has offered banking services in Sierra Leone for about five decades. The Bank started with twenty pioneering staff who were unveiled in a neatly framed photos as the Hall of Fame in remembrance of their long standing service to the Bank.
Past Managing Directors and other pioneering staff some of whom served the Bank for over four decades were among the photos of the pioneers unveiled on the wall of the Bank on Saturday January 21.
Unveiling the staff, SLCB Managing Director, Yusuf Sillah recognized them for their long and dedicated service to the Bank and urged current staff to rekindle their commitment in other to keep the legacy of their predecessors.
“If we need to keep this Bank for another 50 years, we need to be dedicated, disciplined… that is the only way we can keep this Bank for a centenary celebration,” the MD said.
In his statement, SLCB Deputy Managing Director, Festus Sowah thanked the pioneering staff for their service, saying without them, the Bank would not have existed.
“From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of the Board, Management and Staff of SLCB, we say thank you. We are proud and grateful for the achievement and your legacy will live on, he said. “This is why we are delighted to honour you as our first set of Iconic Hall of Fame inductees.”
Agathia O. Sealy is one of the Iconic Hall of Fame still alive. The retired staff was a member of the Steering Committee appointed to formulate details and policies relative to the establishment of the Bank. And one of the twenty people later employed to work for the Bank in 1973.
Speaking on behalf of her colleagues pioneering staff, Sealy lamented the death of many of them, saying that only seven of the staff who started working for SLCB are alive to witness its golden jubilee celebration.
Since its establishment, the government owned Bank has clocked fifty-years of non-stop banking services in Sierra Leone with several branches across the country.
Here are names of the twenty staff that started working in the Bank in 1973:
Christian J. Smith, Managing Director; Simeon James Babatunde Anthony, first Deputy Managing Director; Victor Francis Jamina , Chief Manager/Deputy Managing Director; Alhaji Sana B Marah, Senior Manager/ First Croporate Secretary, Vivian Macauley, Edward Kai Banya, Aminata Sheriff, Rokiatu Isatu Cole, Elvira Dougan, Rita Kamaray, Agathia O. Sealy, Ayodejie Daisy Scott-Boyle, Rosaline Turay, Ayodele Sankoh, Usifu Daniel Kamara, Elizabeth Abioseh Pauline Lewis, Nellie Campbell, Felicia Bola Thompson, Mohamed Barrie and SM Kaimapo.
