TAPPITA, Nimba – Tappita will on December 16 see the opening of a credit union, the first modern financial institution in the city.

Tappita, which is located just over 70 kilometers away from Ganta, and hosts the Jackson F. Doe Memorial Referral Hospital, lacks a bank. The opening of the credit union will allow citizens from adjacent towns and villages to benefit from financial services like personal or corporate savings accounts, Mobile Money transactions, ATM Services, Western Union, and MoneyGram services without having to travel out of town.

Thomas M. Demawu, the General Manager of Trust Savings Credit Union, which constructed the facility in Yarwein-Mehnsonnoh district, spoke to The Bush Chicken about the opening.

“Trust Savings Credit Union will be dedicating her first branch facility of the region in Tappita City on December 16,” he said.

Demawu said the branch in Tappita would save residents the hassle of traveling from Tappita and other villages to Ganta for financial services.

“Choosing Tappita to build our first branch was all the work of the people of Tappita; they fought for it and today they have it,” he said. “They have proven beyond all reasons that they really needed it.”

Demawu noted that the dedication ceremony is expected to have both the Nimba County administration and the county’s legislative caucus in attendance. He said the Executive Governor of the Central Bank of Liberia, J. Mills Jones, will be the keynote speaker.

Tellers’ partitions for members’ transactions. Photo: Arrington Ballah

Trust Savings Credit Union is one of four Regional Financial Institutions established by the Liberia Credit Union National Association that provides financial services to rural dwellers, focusing on low-income households, farmers, women’s group and other people who traditionally lack access to banking services.

Earlier in May of this year, The Bush Chicken reported that a diaspora organization based in the US, the Tappita District Development Association, was also raising money for a bank in collaboration with the Central Bank of Liberia and Afriland First Bank.

Featured photo by Arrington Ballah