Banks told to unleash their full potential

The ninth Ghana Banking Awards has been launched with a call on bankers to venture into new and unexplored areas to unleash the full potential of the industry.

“Industry players must look squarely at the growth potential, they must take concrete steps to find ways to finanace the development of real-estate, oil and gas-related industries, tourism, and agro-business.

“Each banker must be asking herself as to what they can do to move the banking industry into new and unexplored areas. This is the moment to make things happen,” said, the World Bank Country Director, Mr. Ishac Diwan, at the ceremony in Accra to officially launch the awards slated for 9th May, 2010.

He observed that the transformation of the banking sector in the country over the last 10 years is a remarkable story which is of a comparable order of magnitude to that of Nigeria and Kenya.

Available data indicate that the industry’s total contribution to Gross Domestic Products (GDP) has increased from 30 percent to 65 percent with its estimated value of GHc13 billion over the last 10 years.

The number of Banks has grown from 16 to 25, with the number of branches also increasing.

Private sector credit has also grown, from about 12 percent to about 30 percent of GDP over the period.

This growth, Mr. Diwan said, has been driven by the rapid growth of the economy, especially the business and service sectors.

“Ghana is a great success story in terms of financial sector growth, and the banking sector in particular is to be congratulated for this. The successes of the past ten years are unprecedented, but the next ten years hold even more promise.

“It is the effort of bankers, financial market participants, regulators, central bankers, and government officials that will determine not only if Ghana will manage to emerge as a dynamic financial centre and a regional hub, but also the speed of socio-economic growth and development for the years to come,” Mr. Diwan remarked.

Minister of Communication, Haruna Iddrisu, who performed the official launch, said the country has every reason to celebrate the success of the banking industry, emphasising that “government will remain focused on deepening private public partnership in developing the financial sector.”

Mr. Afotey Odarteifio, Executive Secretary of Corporate Initiative Ghana, organisers of the awards ceremony, explained that the standard of living of the people will greatly improve if banks can provide financing to create new businesses to provide jobs, financing to build more houses, more clinics, more schools, provide equipment for food processing and so on.

He however indicated that access to credit is still the number-one challenge holding back the growth and development of the private sector, and the rating of banks in the county.

“Our initiative to stimulate competition within the banking industry goes a long way to emphasis the building and restructuring of a good economy.

Ghana will continue to serve as a role model within the sub-Saharan African region on the grounds of political stability,” Mr. Odarteifio emphasised.

“Our strengths have been in growing returns for the banks as well as creating wealth for customers, we shall pursue these ideals as we continually work to improve our survey methodology, introduce award categories that meet national development agenda, and applaud best performing banks,” he remarked.

The 2009 Ghana Banking Awards will be under the theme ‘Aggressive Financial Intermediation for Rapid Socio-Economic Growth and Development’, and will include the following categories: Best Bank in Corporate Banking, Best Bank in Retail Banking, Best Bank in Customer Care, and Best Bank in Advisory Services.

It will also comprises Best Bank in Trade Finance, Best Bank in Short-Term Loan Financing, Best Bank - Medium Term Financing, Best Bank in Long-Term Loan Financing, Best Bank in I.T. & Electronic Banking, Best Bank in Product Innovation, Best Bank in Competitive Pricing, Corporate Social Responsibility, Best Growing Bank, Best Bank - Financial Performance as well as Best Bank - Export Finance.