Mr. Ammishaddai Owusu-Amoah, the Chief Executive Officer, uniBank Ghana Limited has said, the bank would continue to focus on small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs), to provide financial support for local companies to grow.
“uniBank would count on its strength, covering good customer service, its understanding of the SME market and investments in electronic banking to mobilize more revenue to reach out to more customers in the market.
“The business approach of supporting the small business segment of the economy is often seen as risky and many financial institutions shy away from them.
“While we focus on the SME sector, the bank will take advantage of the opportunities that exist in the oil and gas industry. We intend to embark on strategic branch expansion, product innovations and aggressive deposit mobilization to grow the balance sheet and increase profitability to enhance shareholder value,” Mr. Owusu-Amoah made this known in Accra at a media conference.
He indicated that the Bank’s approach of aggressive banking anchored on electronic banking has resulted in recording impressive financial results over the years.
Last year, the Bank posted impressive results with 79 per cent rise in total assets from GH¢220 million in 2009 to GH¢307.9 million.
It also recorded 99 per cent rise in loans and advances from GH¢110.8 million in 2009 to GH¢220.6 million in 2010, with a significant jump in profits from GH¢2.5 million to GH¢4.7 million during the period under review.
He revealed that a branch would be located in Techiman in the Brong Ahafo Region, two each in Kumasi and Accra, and one each in Koforidua and Tarkwa.
Last year, uniBank introduced mobile-banking products that had proven very successful, with over 20,000 customers already signed on.
The facility which runs on the global banking software, Temenous Arc Mobile platform enables customers to check their balances, transfer funds from one account to another, execute money transfers and remittances and pay utility bills, all directly on their mobile phones.
In a related development, the bank’s SMEs Department under took a campaign aimed at educating and attracting local business operators to its product range of portfolios.
The programme held at Ashiaman, a suburb of Tema Municipal Assembly was to ensure that the Bank achieve its SME support target for the year as well as improving its market share.
Mr. Samuel Sakyi-Hyde, Head of SME Banking said: “The campaign has been arranged to give relationship managers valuable opportunity to interact with prospective clients within their working environment, thereby taking uniBank’s unique products and services right to their doorsteps.
“This is in line with increasing the SME portfolios of the various branches so as to generate substantial increase in business activities at the branches.
“Since the bank has the SME industry as one of its key banking target, these campaigns would increase the bank’s recognition and exposure to businesses in the sector,” Mr. Sakyi-Hyde remarked.
Source: Business and Financial Times
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