By Prince Musa in Kenema
The district coordinator of the Emergency Operations Center in Kenema, Umaru Vandi Kondovoh, has warned against overcrowding in banks. His warning comes as teachers and other civil servants cram in to banks on Tuesday to withdraw their salary.
"Upon receiving information that there are influx of teachers at various banks for their salaries, DOEC (District Operations Emergency Center) moved at various bank entities to talk to the bank managers and see how best they could make sure the issue of social distance is been maintained," Kondovoh said.
“Sierra Leone Commercial Bank, Rokel Bank and Union Trust Bank were extremely over populated this morning" he added.
Kondovoh warned teachers to maintain social distancing rules whiles rushing to collect their salaries. Last week government announced 30% salary increase for teachers across the country, much to the delight of many.
Overcrowding in banks has been a major problem since the start of the Coronavirus epidemic.
In Freetown, there were also similar scenes of people rushing to banks and cramming up in long queues to get cash.
"We don't want teachers to go and collect salaries and end up being infected. We also advise bank managers to ensure that people adhere to the social distance and hand washing before doing any transaction at the banks,” he said.
The bank manager at Rokel Commercial Bank in Kenema, Sandi Massaquoi, told Politico that they had anticipated this large turnout due to the salary increment. He said they had put measures in place to control the crowd, but noted that teachers had been impatient.
"As a bank, we knew that there is going to be pressure today at the bank because of salary increment for teachers. We made arrangement for additional OSD police officers to help control the people," Massaquoi said.
The bank manager added that they deployed additional tellers to attend to many customers at a time. He also said they instructed teachers to form two queues.
"Even when the police are talking to them to maintain social distancing and not get congested, they won’t listen to the officers," he added.
Mohamed Koroma, a teacher of KDEC Primary school, sums up the feeling of the teachers who rushed to the bank.
"Some of us came to this bank by 8:00am but the line is too long and we only depend on this basic salary to support our families."
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