Gambia - The proliferation of Automated Teller Machines (ATM) has a considerable impact and sharpened the focus for both commercial and central banks, says Amadou Colley, the governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia (CBG). Governor Colley made this remark Monday at the Paradise Suites Hotel, while presiding over the opening of a five-day regional training on banknote and forecasting in central banks organised by WAIFEM. The CBG governor also told the participants that the growing network of ATMs has also affected the compositional shift from lower denomination notes to higher denomination notes, in which banks do not find it commercially viable to stock the machines with lower denomination notes, "because they run out sooner and increase both the capital cost and operating cost".

According to Colley, effective currency management always depends on excellent information and insightful analysis. However, be observed that strategic management of currency is impossible without accurate forecasts of the demand for banknote production.

Professor Akpan H Ekpo, director general of WAIFEM, expressed concern over counterfeiting, a thing he described as old as money itself. He added that the problem still continues to present a potential danger to national economies and financial losses to consumers.

Amadou Jallow

The Daily Observer/10/03/2011