Accra, Jan. 28, - Government is
providing the framework to improve the efficiency of Ghana's financial sector
to enable it play an effective role in
promoting economic growth, President
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has said.
He said an effective and
efficient financial system was a prerequisite for the transformation of Ghana’s
economy to a modernised and industrialised one focused on value addition.
President Akufo-Addo said this
when the representatives of the Ghana Association of Savings and Loans
Companies (GHASALC) called on him at the Flagstaff House in Accra.
The call was to introduce the
Association to the President and apprise him of its challenges and also find
ways the GHASALC could fit into government's plans and policies for the
country's socio-economic advancement.
GHASALC is an association of
savings and loans companies registered under the laws of Ghana and also
licensed by the Bank of Ghana.
It aims at offering a platform
for the enhancement of microfinance practice in savings and loans companies to
ensure their sustainability and growth and ensure the ultimate development of
their customers and the national economy in general.
The President lauded the group
for its crucial role in deepening the financial sector's participation in the
country's economic growth.
He took notice of their concerns,
the most important being the Bank of Ghana's intended increase of the minimum
capital requirement for savings and loans companies from GH₵7 million to GH₵15 million.
The Association said if that
happened, their businesses would not be sustainable.
President Akufo-Addo, however,
assured the GHASALC that government would look into that concern, because
"whatever is to be done to strengthen their capacity is very important for
the success of the economy."
He harped on the potential of the
sector to greatly influence growth in the Small and Medium-scale Enterprises
and urged the Association to leverage the One District-One Factory Policy to
fund productive investments that would spur growth for both the sector and the
country.
Mr Kofi Ampofo Agyepong, the
Chairman of GHASALC, on behalf of the Association, commended the President for
the strides his administration had made in its first year of governance.
He said the Association, like any
other financial entity, was poised to render its quota to the development of
the country.
However, government should give
the sector the needed support to enable it to play its part effectively in the
economic development of the nation.
The Association, he said, would
key into the One District One Factory Programme to help the policy to succeed
"because once the economy grows more business our business opportunities
also expand," Mr Agyapong said.
He said the GHASALC was also
looking at any other economic management role it could play to boost the
economic agenda of government.
Mr Agyapong pleaded with the
President to address speedily the issues that were diminishing the returns of
their businesses, which are indigenously owned.
GHASALC also urged President
Akufo-Addo to intervene to enable it to get back part of their commissions on
money remittances from abroad in foreign currencies.
The Association, collectively,
employs more than 11,000 Ghanaians directly, and has 641 branches across the
country, serving some 3.2 million customers with a capital portfolio of about
GH₵7.7 billion.
GNA
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