Finance minister launches operations of FNB in Ghana
The Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper, has officially launched the operations of the First National Bank (FNB) in Ghana with a call to the bank to develop new ideas and technologies, and “offer something new to the public.”
Mr Terkper said the entry of the bank marked another economic stride in the partnership between Ghana and South Africa
“The entry of the bank at such a difficult time attests to the fact that FNB has a role to play in the development of Africa at both good and bad times. Every economy needs a strong banking sector to thrive and it is my hope that the entry of FNB would strengthen the financial sector,” he said.
Create wealth
In a keynote address, the immediate past Governor of the Bank of Ghana (BOG), Dr Kofi Wampah, expressed the hope that the bank would not just create jobs but would also help create wealth for the people in the country to boost the economy.
He indicated that progress had been made on the deposit protection bill and the banks and specialised deposit taking institutions bill and expressed the hope that it would be passed as soon as the parliament resumed.
Exciting opportunity
In his address, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FNB, Mr Jacques Celliers, said “we took the decision to set up an entirely new ‘green fields’ operation free from existing structures and built a new bank from the ground up. This is an exciting opportunity to build a new bank tailored to the requirements in Ghana, based on technologies that are already proven across all our other operations.
The key objective of the bank, he said was to provide electronic and digital banking that was convenient and low-cost to a broad segment of the people of Ghana.
“At the same time, we are building conventional branches and installing our latest ATMs,” he added.
Expansion
Speaking to journalists after the opening, the CEO of FNB Ghana, Mr Richard Hudson, said the bank which had intentions to expand outside Accra would roll out three more branches in Accra in the next two months.
“While our footprint is still developing, we have plans to roll out additional branches and ATMs in the next few years and are already offering a full range of digital platforms from Banking App for smart devices to Online Banking,” he said.
“We have noted that a large portion of retail payments in Ghana are completed by means of manual payments such as cheques and cash. We believe that with our digital play, we will see a significant move towards electronic payments as customers see the benefits of greater security and convenience when paying electronically,” he said.
The Board Chairman of FNB, Mr Richard Larbi, said Ghana was a strategic country, adding that we want to grow into a key systematically important bank over time. We want to be the bank of choice.
He said the bank which served the needs of customers from all sectors had been engaged in considerable business in Ghana such as providing funding for a number of projects.
Presence in Ghana
FNB Ghana presently has two branches and four ATMs located in various points with its head office based in the Accra Financial Centre.
About 125 people are currently working in the two branches of the bank with management of the bank indicating that it aims to increase the work-force as it rolls out more branches and introduces innovative products.