Guaranty Trust Bank, the first Africa bank to be listed in the London Stock exchange, in its relentless efforts to meet the banking needs of its regional customers, has introduced a new GTBank International Money Transfer (GTMT) service.  

The GTMT, which will start within the West Africa sub-region, will enable customers as well as non-customers of the bank to receive and send money with ease and speed.  With the presence of GTBank in four countries across West Africa, the GTMT would also squarely solve the perennial problems associated with money transfer within the sub-region.

This new product would enable customers and non-customers of the bank in Nigeria, Gambia, Ghana and Sierra Leone to walk into any of the various branches of the bank in any of these countries to receive and send money.

"The product has a number of advantages and benefits over existing modes of money transfer such as instant and secured as a customer only needs to walk into any of the branches with cash and within minutes, the sender would be given a pin code for the receiver to use in collecting the transferred funds. Secondly, it's relatively cheaper than other existing modes of transfer as it charges a flat rate of 3% on amounts above $300, while a flat sum of $10 is charged for amounts below $300.

Thirdly, the service is available to both account and non-account holders of all Guaranty Trust banks in Nigeria,  the Gambia, Sierra Leone and Ghana. Additionally, there is a fixed exchange rate as the payment and receipt of funds is in US Dollars unless the recipient requests the local currency. Fifthly, GTMT users could make a huge transfer of up to a limit of $10,000 per transaction," the release indicated.

According to Lekan Sanusi, the managing director of GTBank (Gambia) Ltd, the fixed exchange rate would eliminate the high risk of customers getting huge losses as the exchange rate of the US dollar changes almost on a daily basis. He assured customers of his bank's readiness to always satisfy its customers. He added that with the large presence of Nigerians, Sierra Leoneans and Ghanians in The Gambia, GTMT would be highly welcomed.

Bolaji Ayodele, general manager of GTBank (Gambia) Ltd, who also heads the operations division, said the new service is devoid of any shortcoming as it immediately notifies the sender of the transaction by email. "When the receiver finally receives the money, an email message is automatically sent to the sender for notification of receipt of the money," he concluded.