Story: Boahene Asamoah
THE Bank of Ghana is to review its Know Your Customer (KYC) policy to suit the country’s peculiar needs and to provide banking services to the unbanked public in the country, a deputy Governor has disclosed.
Dr Mahmoud Bawumia, said “some of the requirements needed to open an accounts in commercial banks such as the provision of utility bills disenfranchised many people from banking services”.
Speaking at the launch of the Private Banking Services of Ecobank Ghana Limited in Accra, yesterday the Deputy Governor said the central bank was looking at the KYC policy in view of the country’s own peculiar needs.
He said many people do not have utility bills in their names and as such the policy discouraged people from doing business through the banking system.
Dr Bawumia said to ensure that banking services became convenient to customers the central bank in collaboration with its stakeholders would soon introduce the National Electronic Switch that would provide services to both holders and non holders of Auto Teller Machines cards (ATMs) throughout the country.
“This is not going to be easy, but with the support of all stakeholders this can become a reality”, he stated.
He said the Bank of Ghana would continue to pursue policies that would ensure the development of the banking sector.
He said over the past few years, there had been improvement in the macro-economic stability, however he acknowledged that “macroeconomics stability is not an end itself”.
Dr Bawumia said the banking institution had responded to policies by re-engineering and increasing credit to the private sector.
He said as at August this year, the capitalisation of banks stood at ¢4.3 trillion as against ¢3.3 trillion for the same period last year representing an increase of 33.5 per cent.
The Deputy Governor said “generally the banks have shown a robust earning and profitability over the past few years, whiles non performing loans had dropped to 11.7 per cent from 24 per cent over the past years”.
Dr Bawumia said the central bank would continue to maintain the fight against inflation to ensure its downward trend.
Launching the new service, the Executive Secretary of the Economic Community of West African States, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, said the launch of the private banking services was “a landmark in the bank’s drive towards achieving a full fledged retail banking status”.
He said financial integration was a necessary condition for achieving a monetary and economic union within the sub-region.
Dr Chambas said “ECOWAS is very appreciative of the pioneering role of Ecobank and its contribution to the deepening of the regional financial market.”
He said financial integration in the sub-region has reached the stage where it can only succeed if it was market driven.
“ECOWAS is counting on such regional institutions whose future operations would smoothly and effectively transmit the monetary policy impulses of the proposed West African Central bank throughout the region”, he stated.
He added that Ecobank’s efforts fell in line with the aspirations of ECOWAS as the bank had taken the lead to integrate the retail banking sector by extending cross-border banking services to 12 of the 15 ECOWAS member states.
The Managing Director of Ecobank Ghana Limited, Mr Samuel Ashitey Adjei, said the introduction of the new service was to provide quality service to a segment of the market.
He said the increasing demand on the target market had positioned the bank in a position to redefine personal banking services that would meet international standards.
Mr Adjei said the new service was fast, convenient and personalised banking services to the target segment.
To ensure that the service is delivered to the top-notch in society, the service is not open to the general public, it is by invitation.
The Managing Director said the bank would introduce more innovations to satisfy both the retail and corporate customers in the near future.
Caption: Mr Alfred Sakyi, Manager of the Private Banking, of Ecobank, (Second Left) showing Dr Chambas the edifice of the bank. Also in the picture from right is Mr E.P.L. Gyampoh, immediate past Board Chairman of Ecobank, Dr Bawumia, a deputy Governor Bank of Ghana, Mr Tei Mensah Mante, Board Chairman of Ecobank Ghana and Mr Adjei, MD of Ecobank Ghana.
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