Veep Appeals To Ghanaian Banks pix1

The Vice President, John Dramani Mahama has called on Ghanaian banks, both home and abroad, to critically position themselves, and their operations so they take full advantage of the country’s latest oil find. He said everything regarding the oil production was on schedule and that there was the likelihood that production will start streaming in November instead of the originally scheduled date of December 2010. Mr. Mahama said this on July 7, 2010 when he paid a courtesy call on management and officials of Ghana International Bank at their headquarters in London. He was in London to participate in this year’s UK – Ghana Investment Forum, which was slated for July 8, 2010.
He said though the President Mills’ administration has and will continue to take the necessary steps to study from the good, the bad and the ugly sides of countries that have discovered oil, there was the maximum guarantee that Ghana will succeed in its oil find, production and application of resources because the governance system that the country is practicing has enough checks and balances to forestall and correct any lapse that may occur.
Mr. Mahama reiterated government’s commitment to fixing and moving the country’s economic from a developing one to an emerging economy. He said the reason why things were so difficult for Ghanaians in last year was partly because of the world economic bumps, which required the government, like several governments of the world, to take prudent economic measures such as deep expenditure cuts that eventually, pushed down the country’s deficit, Lowered inflation, stabilized the cedi, and gave reasons for Ghanaians to believe that the country could record a 6.0 percentage growth instead of the 5.7 per cent target set for 2010.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Ghana International Bank (GIB), Mr. Joe Mensah said the bank exist to intermediate the trade flow between Ghana and the rest of the world. He said for the past 50 years the bank had held its own placing 24 on returns on their asset and 27 on returns on investment in a banking survey that was organized recently in the UK over sample sizes of 156.
In terms of the Bank’s profit margin, Mr. Mensah said the bank has risen from 1.4 million pound sterling to 11.6 million pound sterling since the bank was incorporated in 1957.

Mr. Mensah said the bank was opened to the Ghanaian community in the UK, supports Africa’s development, provide confortable banking to their clients and are working towards doubling their income from £50 million to £100 million so they can take advantage of the Ghana’s oil find.



Story: George Azirigo
07/07/10