Effective Thursday 14 August all banks in Sierra Leone will adjust their hours of opening to the public as a way to deal with the Ebola outbreak in the country. Those in the disease epicentre areas like Kenema will be open between 08:30 and 12:30 while those elsewhere in the country will be open between 08:30 and 1:30. This is two hours less than the current business hours.
There will also be no Saturday banking, according to the President of the Sierra Leone Association of Commercial Banks, Clement Dodoo.
He said the reason for the adjustment had emanated from the declaration of the state of public emergency and as a way of implementing policies to keep as less a crowd as possible.
Dodoo said customers would be "asked politely to wait outside" the bank in the case of overcrowding. "This is to reduce body contact" he said, "as a means of reducing the risk of transmission".
Dodoo, who also heads ECOBANK Sierra Leone, said they took the decision in consultation with the central bank.
(C) Politico 12/08/14
