Fidelity Bank Expands Frontier (Business Page)

28/03/2008
Story: Mary Mensah
The Head of Banking Supervision Department of the Bank of Ghana, Mr Dela Selormey, has called on banks to embark on an intensive training programmes to raise the competency level of their newly engaged staff.
Mr Selormey said one of the challenges that confronted the banking industry was inadequate number of well-trained bankers to meet the rapidly growing financial sector.
He made the call at the simultaneous opening in Accra yesterday of three new branches of Fidelity Bank Limited. The branches are located at Osu, Spintex Road and High Street.
Mr Selormey said the BoG for its part had initiated a number of regulatory and policy reforms to ensure a congenial legal framework and that it issued periodic directives to promote transparency in the banker-customer relationships.
The BoG’s directives were also to ensure that banks undertook risks commensurate with their size and complexity, he stated.
Mr Selomey said the licensing of two more banks in the first quarter of this year had brought the commercial banks’ branch network to 539, which had further deepened the competition.
He commended the management and staff of Fidelity Bank for their contribution towards the development of the banking sector and the bank’s own rapid expansion.
The Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Professor George Gyan-Baffour, who inaugurated the branches, called on banking institutions to reduce interest rates to enable more small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) to access loans to expand their businesses.
That, he said, would not only be beneficial to customers and investors but the banks as well and would also help the economy to expand.
He said the government’s vision of promoting the private sector as the engine of growth would be undermined without increased financial intermediation.
“As an economy in which over 90 per cent of companies are SMEs, we need more banking outlets to support the SMEs to facilitate access to credit at a cheaper cost so that they can expand their businesses, grow the economy and provide jobs,” he stated.
The Deputy Finance and Economic Planning Minister expressed the hope that the passage of the Credit Reporting Act (Act 720) and the consequent licensing of credit reference bureaux would help address the risk factor in the banking sector and impact positively on interest rates.
The Managing Director of Fidelity Bank Limited, Mr Edward Effah, said the opening of the three branches was to bring enhanced services to the doorstep of its customers and prospective ones.
He said the vision of the bank was to provide a benchmark for retail banking in the country, defined by positive customer service and employee efficiency.
The Director, Retail Banking, of the bank, Mr John Sam Acquah, said the bank planned to open more branches by the close of the year in Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and other business districts of the country.
He announced that by the end of June this year, the bank would roll out its automatic teller machines (ATMs), Internet banking product, phone banking and mobile banking facilities, among others.


Picture: Mr Edward Effah, Managing Director of Fidelity Bank (left), taking the Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, Prof George Gyan-Baffour, (3rd left) around the banking hall. With them include the Board Chairman, Mr William Panford-Bray (4th left) and an Advisor to the Finance Minister, Mr Poku Kyei (2nd left) and other staff of the bank.