Access Bank unveils revolutionary women banking service
Access Bank Ghana is set to unveil a revolutionary women banking service, known as the ‘W’ Initiative.
The service, which will be launched on Saturday, will provide women with relevant solutions to meet their financial and lifestyle needs, the bank has said.
At a media briefing held at the La-Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra Monday, Access Bank said the ‘W’ Initiative was a unique approach to women banking, which was being introduced to empower women to stay ahead of today's world.
The Head of the Women Banking Unit, Mrs Josephine Eva Arthur, said although Ghanian women formed 51 per cent of the population, run 70 per cent of Small & Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs), and contribute 44 per cent to national GDP, they were still not getting the support they required to stand up.
According to Mrs Arthur, research had shown that if women were given the needed push, the GDP of Africa would increase dramatically.
To this end, she said the “new and unique” ‘W’ initiative seeks to empower women in various phases of life.
The ‘W’ initiatives will, among other offerings, provide financial literacy for women and provide them with business and personal loans, she said, adding that it will be supported by an online interactive community – www.thewcommunity.com - where women can exchange ideas with other and obtain credible advice.
Mrs Arthur said women banking service has three packages: ‘W Young Professionals’, ‘W and Family’ and ‘W and Business’, which she said are targeted respectively at three categories of women –young professionals, women and Family and women in business.
She said for young professionals, the service will, among others, provide great discount offers a range of exclusive shopping, health and beauty, leisure, dining, travel as well as access to career development workshops and seminars and mentor-mentee programmes to sharpen their skills.
The service will also provide them with professional advice, guidance and education on a wide variety of personal finance and money management topics.
For ‘women and family’, the service will provide access to a comprehensive range of loan products and credit facilities, access to W community for helpful advice on family finance matters, home and family
It will also provide access to Maternal Health Support Scheme (MHS to support couples with overcoming financial challenges and offer help in their quest to complete their family.
Women in business, Mrs Arthur said, will empowered with a broad range of flexible loans and short-term capital credit, facility upgrades, cash backed loans and business overdrafts.
They will also have exclusive access to gender trained business banking officers, who will provide advice and guidance to small business owners.
Apart from that, they will be provided with access to selected panel of professional advisors such as lawyers, accountants, tax experts, auditors and consultants.
Mrs Arthur stressed that the Access Bank’s women banking service would generally make banking easier for women and grant them improved access to collateral.
She said the service would help women in SMEs to structure their books in a way that will enable them attract capital.
Access Bank is one of Ghana’s biggest banks with GH₵991.1 million in assets.