CAL Bank has disclosed its new strategy to resort to agency banking to meet the changing phase of banking in Ghana.
As a result, the bank says it will reduce the construction of brick and mortar structures which should help in optimizing cost while improving on its service delivery.
The Managing Director of Cal Bank, Frank Adu Junior disclosed this at the inauguration of the new Head Office of Cal Bank on Wednesday [May 22, 2019].
According to Mr. Frank Adu Junior, the new model is to help the bank expand its footprint as it works to meet the changing phase of the needs of customers of banks.
He adds that the bank intends to establish about two thousand of such agents.
Mr. Adu Jnr further explained that the move is to also capitalize on the financial inclusion drive that emerging economies like Ghana is largely lagging behind.
“These agents will be able to perform at every point the basic requirement or product that a branch can deliver. It allows us to now spread ourselves across the entire country rather than just being in selected regions…I can predict that in the next 15 years, branches of banks are going to become showrooms,” he said.
The Cal Bank boss however assured that the move should not lead to a drop in the number of employees hired by the bank.
President Akufo Addo on his part, congratulated the efforts by Cal Bank as an indigenous institution which is working to increase the number of unbanked population.
Citing the bank’s resilience in the recent banking sector clean up, the President also pledged of the government’s support to enhance the use of digital financial platforms.
“We will work with financial institutions and regulators to promote digital finance and mobile money usage and thereby help formalize the Ghanaian economy. With reforms to our payment systems, we anticipate that Ghana will have a strong competitive edge in the region for financial inclusion and access to credit,” he said.
Meanwhile the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr. Ernest Addison indicated that the regulator says the increase in assets of banks at least for the first quarter of 2019, backs the need to promote a sound financial market to restore consumer confidence.
