Gambia orders banks to replace non-Gambian staff with citizens by December 31

The Gambian government has ordered commercial banks operating in the country, including Access Bank, GTBank, FirstBank, Zenith Bank and Ecobank, to begin replacing non-Gambian employees with suitably qualified Gambian citizens by December 31, 2026, Parallel Facts reports.

The directive, issued by the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG) in a circular dated September 16 and signed by Second Deputy Governor Dr Paul J. Mendy, followed a meeting with commercial bank managing directors on August 27 and an industry-wide review of foreign employment in the sector.

According to the CBG, the review found a “relatively high number” of non-Gambians working in banks outside approved expatriate arrangements, a practice it said contravenes The Gambia’s Labour Act 2023 and Guideline 9 governing expatriate staff employment.

The Central Bank directed the banks to adopt a phased replacement approach while making arrangements for skills transfer and continuity of operations, stressing that the exercise must not disrupt banking activities or result in the loss of critical institutional knowledge.

Although several of the affected banks are subsidiaries of Nigerian banking groups, the CBG clarified that the directive applies industry-wide and does not specifically target any particular institution.

Under the Labour Act’s framework, employers granted expatriate quotas are required to provide Gambian understudies to facilitate skills and technology transfer.

With the December 31 deadline now set, the affected banks face a tightly compressed timeline to restructure their workforces, identify and train qualified local replacements, and complete the transition while maintaining seamless operations across their Gambian subsidiaries.