Nigeria’s diaspora commission has formally protested a directive by the Central Bank of The Gambia that orders commercial banks to replace their non-Gambian employees with Gambian nationals, warning that the policy puts the jobs of 57 Nigerian professionals at risk before the year runs out.
The Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), led by Abike Dabiri-Erewa, raised the alarm in a statement issued by its spokesman, Abdur-Rahman Balogun. The commission described the September 16 directive as deeply worrisome and said the affected Nigerians, who work with four Nigerian-owned banks, hold valid residency and work permits.
The directive at the centre of the dispute was signed by the Second Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of The Gambia, Dr Paul J. Mendy, and gives banks until December 31, 2026, to complete the transition. It followed an August 27 meeting between the regulator and managing directors of banks, and an industry study which the bank said found a relatively high number of non-Gambians employed beyond those formally recognised as expatriate staff. The bank said the practice breached The Gambia’s Labour Act 2023 and fell short of Guideline 9, which governs expatriate employment in the sector.
The regulator asked lenders to adopt a phased approach, identify Gambians who can take over affected roles, and arrange for skills transfer so that operations are not disrupted. It did not announce an outright ban on foreign workers, nor did it name individual banks or disclose how many employees are affected across the industry.
The Gambia has about 11 commercial banks, and four are subsidiaries of Nigerian groups: Access Bank, First Bank, Guaranty Trust Bank and Zenith Bank. Their presence has grown over nearly two decades of expansion into smaller West African markets, most recently through Access Bank’s takeover of Standard Chartered’s long-running Gambian operation. Ecobank, a pan-African lender, along with a handful of locally owned and regional banks, makes up the rest of the market.
NIDCOM argued that the four Nigerian-owned banks are too central to the Gambian economy for such a sweeping staffing change. According to the commission, they hold 37.2 per cent of total deposits, valued at 35.3 billion dalasi, the Gambian currency, 32.6 per cent of loans worth 7.67 billion dalasi, and 37 per cent of industry assets put at 44.78 billion dalasi. The commission added that the banks account for 34.5 per cent of investments in Central Bank bonds and have provided 90 per cent of the funding for the National Water and Electricity Company.
While acknowledging The Gambia’s right to promote local employment, Dabiri-Erewa said any such policy must respect existing contracts, valid work permits and the ECOWAS protocol on free movement. She called it contradictory to court African investment and regional cooperation on one hand while displacing qualified African professionals on the other. The commission urged the regulator to reverse the blanket directive and to engage the Nigerian High Commission in Banjul for an amicable resolution.
The move fits a wider pattern across the region, where governments are pressing foreign-invested firms to hire and promote more citizens. Ghana, for instance, requires that the managing director and chairman of a foreign-owned bank not both be foreigners, and has tightened local-content conditions tied to expatriate quotas. Analysts have cautioned that an abrupt loss of experienced foreign staff could strain specialised functions such as treasury, risk management, technology and compliance, where pan-African banks often move personnel between subsidiaries.
Questions also remain over the scope of the Gambian order. The Labour Act does not bar foreign employment outright but places conditions on it, including a requirement that employers with expatriate quotas train Gambian understudies. Some observers have noted that the guideline the Central Bank cited deals mainly with senior management, while the directive speaks more broadly of replacing existing non-Gambian staff, a gap that could invite a legal challenge.
For now, the affected Nigerian banks have not publicly stated how the change will affect their Gambian operations, and the Central Bank has not responded to the concerns raised by Abuja. With the December 31 deadline drawing closer, attention is likely to shift to whether both governments can reach an understanding that protects lawful jobs without undercutting The Gambia’s push for greater local participation in its banking industry.