Banks urged to educate public on their operations

Banks, and other financial institutions have been urged to be proactive by educating the public, especially those in the rural areas, on the services they offer to attract more customers to save with them.

This is because, it had been realized that people in the rural areas were ignorant of the various services the banks offer, hence their inability to do business with them.

Mr Ken Appenteng, Micro-finance expert of the Support Programme for Enterprise Empowerment and Development (SPEED) Ghana, made the call during a “road show” organized by Stratcomm Africa, a communication consultant, to educate the public on the services banks had to offer.

SPEED Ghana is funded by the German Technical Service (GTZ) and the Danish Development Agency (DANIDA) to assist the micro-finance sector by providing technical finance to rural banks, credit unions and savings and loans companies among others.

Mr Appenteng said the objectives of the “road show” was among others, to help the banks educate the general public and customers on the process involved in opening a bank account and the issue of guarantors for loans.

He urged market women and petty traders to endeavour to make regular savings, saying, “This is the only way you can protect yourselves against any emergencies in life”.

He emphasised the need for customers to also pay back their loans to enable others to benefit from similar services.

Mr Abdallah Abdul-Rashid, acting Bank Manager of the Boromanga Rural Bank in Savelugu said the project had given them a broader outlook, which would enable them to reach out to their clients.

He said he had realised that more money was in the hands of people instead of the banking system.

He said the “road show” organized by Stratcomm Africa was a big success and promised that his bank would continue with the education of the public to encourage them to become customers.