Ghana will overcome economic challenges soon - Standard Chartered Bank optimistic

The Group Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank (Global), Jose Vinals, has expressed confidence that Ghana will come out of the economic challenges in the shortest time due to the measures instituted and pledged the bank's support for it.

“We are confident that by working hard and in a joint manner between the government and the private sector, Ghana will be out of this situation and will embark on a growth path that it had before COVID-19 and the other crises that hit the country, the region and the world,” he added.

Mr Vinals, who until his appointment as Standard Chartered Bank Global Group chairman was the IMF Financial Counsellor and in charge of the Capital Markets, said this when he paid a courtesy call on President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the Jubilee House on Thursday [June 29].

In the company of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Standard Chartered Ghana PLC, Mansa Nettey, and the Board Chairman of Standard Chartered Ghana PLC, Ebenezer Asante, Mr Vinals described his visit to Ghana “as reconfirmation of our support and also a vote of confidence on Ghana’s future”.

He expressed the bank’s commitment to the country because it had a positive view of the economic future of the country.

Digitalisation

Mr Vinals said the bank had identified many opportunities in Ghana’s digitalisation agenda being pursued by the government, together with a sustainability agenda.

The Group Chairman of Standard Chartered Bank indicated that the bank was committed to investing greatly in the opportunities set by digitalisation and sustainability.

“We have been making investments to launch very soon a platform for the financing of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), which I think can be quite transformational,” he added.

Mr Vinals announced that he had been nominated by the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN) to co-chair the Global Alliance of Private Investors for Development, whose task was to put together financial solutions so that “we can scale up financing for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) towards emerging markets and developing economies”.

The task, he added, was to work very closely with many private sector partners, multilateral development banks and the UN to push forward on sustainability endeavour. 

Sovereign debt

Mr Vinals said the bank was also very privileged to have been the only bank in the world invited to the global roundtable instituted recently.

The G-20, the World Bank and the IMF together with developing countries and the finance ministers of key advanced economies in the world, including the United States (US),  Europe and China, instituted the roundtable.

Their work, Mr Vinals explained, was to discuss how to better recalibrate the framework for sovereign debt restructuring in those cases where that was needed.

“So we have a voice at the table, which combines our banking experience with our experience in working with governments from many parts of the world who have had challenges with their sovereign debt restructuring processes like it is the case in Ghana,” the Standard Chartered Global Group Chairman said.

Digitalisation

President Akufo-Addo, for his part, said the bank had made very valuable contributions to the development of the country which was well appreciated and the government valued the relationship with the bank.

He said Ghana was committed to the digitalisation of the country, especially its economy, describing it as “the baby of our Vice-President who has been extremely upfront in pursuing the whole programme as successful as possible”.

He said the opportunities in Ghana were immense and that the government was fully committed to aiding the private sector, both domestic and foreign, to work to enable them to contribute to the development of the country.

“We believe strongly that ultimately the strength of the private sector in Ghana will determine the country’s future prospects,” President Akufo-Addo added.

He said Ghana was committed to promoting the larger African integration and West Africa as a means of stretching interdependence and links.