By Omar Bah
The Social Security and Housing Finance Corporation (SSHFC) has started the process of building a close working relationship amongst its business subsidiaries to promote collaboration and mutual growth.
The corporation owns majority shares in Trust Bank Gambia, Gam Petroleum and a hundred percent ownership of the Gambia Transport Service Company (GTSC) and West Africa Leisure Group, the company that manages Ocean Bay and Sun Beach Hotels.
In a drastic measure to respond to the global economic challenges, the SSHFC Managing Director Saloum Malang said the corporation felt it prudent to harmonise its subsidiary companies to foster collaboration, increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve service delivery.
“The SSHFC has various subsidiaries and substantial equity investment in several companies with each offering different services and our goal is to promote collaboration and encourage them to explore the possibility of trading among themselves,” MD Malang said.
He said the corporation under his watch has always prioritise collaboration.
“We believe that unity is strength. We believe that leaving our entities to continue working separately is not in the best interest of the corporation. This is why we want to bring them together so that they can work as one family and put their resources together without necessarily impeding or affecting each other’s operation,” he added.
He added that bringing these institutions under one umbrella will also save resources and as well improve efficiency.
“The idea is to ensure that these businesses are working perfectly to help us maximise profit so that where the corporation is short of resources, these institutions can come forward and bail us out,” he stated.
The General Manager for Gam Petroleum, Yero Jallow said the company welcomes the idea of cooperating with SSHFC’s other businesses.
“I think as a group, we can do a lot especially if we are able to synchronise the hotels, GTSC, Gam Petroleum and Trust Bank. As service providers, we should be able to work closely. We are ready to collaborate. The most important thing for us now is to make fuel available in the country,” he said.
For her part, the MD of Trust Bah, Njillan Senghore, collaboration among the different entities will go a long way to improve the relationship between them and as well as boost their business capabilities.
The GTSC General Manager Seedy Kanyi said his company provides a hosts of packages to its customers and a strong working relationship between them and other SSHFC institutions will go a long way in improving their service.
Gokhan Topyanal, general manager West African Leisure Group said a strong collaboration between SSHFC business subsidiaries will address a lot of challenges encountered by entities and foster collaboration which will end up maximising profit for the corporation. Meanwhile, the corporation’s investment portfolio experienced a twelve percent growth, from D4.71 billion in 2019 to D5.27 billion in 2020.
