Customers of Gamsavings, a micro-finance institution under Gamstar Company on Tuesday stormed the Gamsavings office along OAU Boulevard in Banjul to withdraw their monies.

One of the customers, Serign Omar Gaye, told this reporter he was referred from Brikama to Banjul to withdraw the money he saved in the Gamsavings branch in Brikama. "I am now fed up, I came yesterday and they told me to wait and I waited for the whole day but I could not withdraw my money, and as you can see, I came here since early in the morning and I could not still have access to my money," he complained.

According to him, he was promised that they were going to settle him and the other customers but that seems to be a mere talk to him, as he could not see any sign of progress in that aspect. "I need my money. I have been paying fares for the past three days and considering the fares I pay from Brikama to here for all these days, it is causing me a lot," he lamented. He said he was informed that the Brikama branch was closed and that the management of Gamsavings did not tell them anything about what is going on.

An agent of Gamsavings who preferred to be anonymous said: "In fact you are late to come, if you were here in the morning people would have carried you away." She explained that she is an agent of the company and had being going out to collect money from their clients and now these customers are storming her house asking for their money. "We are very angry at the moment because we used to go to the market and collect money from the women and deliver it to Gamsavings; all of a sudden, we came one day and were informed surprisingly that the company would be closed temporally for best reasons known to them," she explained. She tried to convince the customers that they are the only agents and don't have any money in their possession.

"We are now being accused of eating the money which we don't know anything about, I am even ashamed of myself and I don't even know what to tell them, I hate this job and I don't even pray for any of my relatives to do this job now," she remarked.Another customer, who identified himself as Buba Drammeh and a resident of Brikama, said:

"We have been going and coming everyday for two days now, and we cannot still access our monies, this is not a bank, it is just to disturb people and all of us queuing here are victims of that. If I had known that things were going to be like this, I would not have saved a dim with them."

Drammeh claimed that none of the staff of the company had approached them to explain what has gone wrong. Mohammed Badjie, another customer from Faji Kunda said he visited the Gamsavings branch in Latrikunda a few days ago and was referred to the Banjul branch. He added that on getting to Banjul, he found a long queue of people waiting to withdraw their monies.

Efforts to reach the officials at the Gamsavings Banjul office proved futile as someone who identified himself a staff of the company appeared and pushed this reporter out of the building.However, later in the evening, this reporter contacted Bai Ndongo Faal, the general manager of Gamstar Company, to shed light on the issue. But he declined to comment much on the issue, saying he needs to consult his lawyers. However, Faal disclosed that the Central Bank of The Gambia increased the capital requirement for micro-finance companies from D500, 000 to D10, 000, 000, which he said,"we were not able to raise at that period".

"Meanwhile, I am appealing to you to give me some time to consul my lawyers, after that I will call for a press briefing on the subject matter," he said.