Making Ghana the Financial Hub-Banks urged to integrate financial services into global economy.

Story: Boahene Asamoah

A Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Dr Anthony Akoto-Osei, has challenged banks in the country to ensure that the sector becomes a robust and sophisticated one that will anchor the country’s integration into the global economic and financial system.
He said “the country lacks a financial sector, well robust and sophisticated enough to anchor Ghana’s integration into the global economic and financial system.”
Speaking today at the inauguration of the new branch office of Amalgamated Bank at Osu, one of the booming economic centres in Accra, Dr Akoto-Osei stated that the government, on the other hand, was committed to providing the necessary environment to ensure that the country had the expected robust, financial sector.
He reiterated the government’s vision of making Accra the financial hub of the sub-region, with a world class, globally competitive financial services sector.
The minister said banks had deepened financial ???intermidiation??? in the country by expanding credit to worthy individuals and businesses, adding that “all these help fuel economic activities and give crucial momentum to the growth of our economy”.
He said the vibrancy of the financial sector being witnessed was as a result of the forward-looking reforms of the government.
Dr Akoto-Osei commended the bank for expanding its operations in the country and for doubling its staff strength in two years.
The opening of the new branch office at Osu brings the bank’s branches to 12.
The Managing Director of the bank, Mr Oluwole Ajamole, said “we set ourselves the mission to lead the market in providing customer-focused financial services to meet the peculiar needs of our dear customers.”
He said the bank’s decision to open a branch at Osu was part of its drive to make its convenient, customer-centred brand of banking solutions available to a wider range of the Ghanaian public.
He assured the banking public that the bank would by the end of the year add eight more branches to its network of branches and bring the total to 20.
Mr Ajamole stated that new branch was equipped with modern and state-of-the-art facilities and a team of smart and committed staff to serve the needs of customers.
The managing director said this was an exciting time to do business in the country and referred to the economic growth that the country was witnessing, the opening of new businesses in the country as well as the oil find.
“These provide a dynamic environment with constantly changing opportunities and threats to businesses”, he added.
He said the bank would continue to expand in all spheres and increase its footprint, business lines and capacity to offer better services to its customers.