The Managing Director of Consolidated Bank Ghana (CBG), Mr Daniel Wilson Addo, on Wednesday pledged support for Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the country, as the institution rolls out other financial programmes and incentives for its clientele.
He emphasised that SMEs which were catalysts of economic development seemed not to have received the much needed attention from the banks, hence the commitment to direct more attention to the sector.
Mr Addo said this when he led a delegation of management team to New Times Corporation on Wednesday, to deepen the existing working relationship and also discuss avenues for future business collaboration.
Consolidated Bank Ghana emerged in 2019 following the collapse of the seven indigenous banks, and had since been engaged in a number of banking activities which has helped to integrate it into main line banking system while stabilising its operations for profit making ventures.
He said the CBG would have a special attention for SMEs since they were the bedrock of every nation and as such deserved the best of attention in terms of policy formulation, innovative ways of doing business and financial support.
Mr Addo added that large corporate bodies could be found lacking if the smaller ones were ineffective since business environment was a value chain that survived on each other’s operation.
Mr Addo said the CBG had its focus on placing value on technology by introducing a digital lending product that would target the SMEs to ensure that time to accessing working capital was reduced in order to enhance their business environment and growth.
He said their drive to streamline the operations of the bank was initially challenging but after putting up hard work, a trusted brand has been created with a good balance sheet coupled with large branch network manned by highly motivated and experienced staff to support business growth and the government’s development agenda.
Mr Addo was appreciative of the support of stakeholders who through the turbulent and doubtful times stood by the bank and urged customers and the general public to continue to repose confidence and trust in their operations since there were better times ahead.
He called for a closer collaboration with the corporation, which publishes the Ghanaian Times and The Spectator to help realise the vision of CBG adding that the bank was well placed now to use its expertise to achieve its target goals.
The Managing Director expressed appreciation to stakeholders for supporting the bank during its difficult times, stressing that CBG was ready to collaborate with the corporation in its operations.
Mr Martin Adu-Owusu, the Acting Managing Director of NTC also pledged commitment to help meet the objectives and vision of the bank since being an integral part of the state owned enterprises, “the onus lies on us to support each other to attain our targets”.
He also commended the management of the CBG for working so hard to put the bank on sound footing which has led to stability and growing confidence in the brand.
Other management members of NTC present at the meeting included Mrs Georgina Naa-Maku Quaittoo, Acting Editor of The Spectator, Mr Felix Acheampong, Acting Human Resource Manager and Mr John Lawson, Technical Services Manager.
BY ERNEST NUTSUGAH
