President Wavel Ramkalawan received the Chief Executive Absa Regional Operations based in South Africa, Mr. Saviour Chibiya, at State House this morning.

He was accompanied by the new chairman of the Absa Bank Seychelles, Limited, Mr. Marc Houareau Managing Director of Absa Bank Seychelles, Limited, Mr Nazim Mahmood, and former Managing Director Johan Van Schalkwyk.

President Ramkalawan congratulated both; Mr. Houareau and Mr. Mahmood on their new appointment and expressed that Absa bank Seychelles is an important partner to the Government of Seychelles.

“I wish to congratulate you both as you take on these new responsibilities. The role of Absa Bank Seychelles as a banking institution is crucial for the country. Let there be continuous dialogues between the Central Bank of Seychelles, the Ministry of Finance, National Planning and Trade, and yourself. This is very important. The partnership between the Government and Absa Bank is good and the services that you offer are very easy. I wish to also commend ABSA for recruiting young Seychellois that are slowly developing themselves in this sector,” said President Ramkalawan.

The meeting centered on Absa’s strategies, how Absa can partner with the Government for the economic growth and development of Seychelles, some of the ways in which they can support their customers, digitizing the economy, digitizing how banking is done so to ensure productivity and accessibility to banking as well more affordable banking services, affordable funding for businesses and individual, investment among other topics. They also discussed some challenges they are facing such as Gainful Occupation Permit (GOP).

In an interview with the local media, Mr. Mahmood explained how the Absa bank Seychelles is planning to improve its services and strengthen its different channels.

“It is critical that after coming out of a pandemic, we continue to grow the businesses here and it is important that the role of the local Seychellois is further strengthened in entrepreneurship. As a bank that is a significant size here in Seychelles, it is our important responsibility to be able to inculcate the spirit of entrepreneurship in the youngsters,” he said.