By Augustine B. Kollie
augustinekollie87@yahoo.com
Monrovia,Liberia: GN Bank Ghana Limited, a Groupe Nduom company has obtained $20 million funding from the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) to support its $27 million expansion project.
The project which began some three years ago, has already helped to address the challenges ofaccess to safe banking and finance for poor and rural people across Ghana through the provision of banking services in remote areas.
GN Bank Liberia, RLJ Kendeja resorts and Villas including the Liberia Enterprise Development Finance Company(LEDFC) are subsidiary institutions of Groupe Nduom, which provides numerous support to these entities in Liberia.
The GN Bank expansion project which is to provide close to client, safe and convenient banking in all10 regions of Ghana has led to the opening of full branches, money stores and small express banking services in virtually every district of the country.
It has also contributed to the bank-wide investments in technology and communications infrastructure to link these new branches together; the acquisition of vehicles for use at new branch locations and for mobile banking operations; and the purchases of equipment needed to begin operations at each new branch.
The project has supported the purchase of equipment to build out an extensive bank branch network in Ghana. This has enabled new staff of the bank to increase deposit-taking capabilities, with a focus on rural areas of the country, where clients are often “unbanked”.
In addition to providing financial services to rural Ghanaians, this project is on course to create a number of job opportunities, largely for the youth who will be the bank’s Mobile Bankers in mostly, the rural areas of the country.
According to World Bank estimates, only around half of Ghanaians have access to a bank account, a situation which is pronounced in rural areas.GN Bank has become the leading regulated financial institution that has invested directly in helping solve the huge gap of unbanked population in Ghana.
GN Bank is living up to its “People’s Bank” slogan with retail banking approach which allows some bank accounts to be opened with as little as 50 pesewas. The bank has successfully encouraged a savings culture among several thousands of people who have taken advantage of GN Bank’s combination of free life insurance cover and the highest interest rate on ordinary savings accounts in Ghana.
Source: www.eezyonline.com
