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24 | The Lion King
Ghana Banking Industry
Awards, including being the
Best Bank in Short-Term Loan
Financing in Ghana for the
year 2011; and
• Best Country Subsidiary in
Financial Performance in UBA
in 2011.
UBA Ghana has been doing so
well under your tenure. Indeed
you have moved Ghana to a
higher level of financial perform-
ance. As a learning point what
have been the contributory
factors for Ghana’s impressive
performance?
UBA Ghana’s impressive results
can be attributed to a few things.
Our excellent customer service
which has led to a pool of loyal
customers who do repeat busi-
ness with us and give us referrals;
our dedicated and hard-working
staff who always ensure that our
customers are delighted; and our
ability to leverage on our parent
company’s expertise and bal-
ance sheet to seamlessly under-
take large ticket transactions.
Also, we are simply efficient. We
have put in place several cost-
efficient initiatives and strong risk
management framework that
optimize the use of our resources.
With the keen competitive
landscape in Ghana, how are
you able to differentiate the UBA
brand in the Ghanaian market?
In the face of the intense com-
petition we have had to vigor-
ously differentiate the UBA brand
through quality customer service,
superior products and speed to
market. Another differentiator is
the leveraging on our Group to
introduce appropriate products
such as Africash and Afritrade
that facilitate intra-African trade
and business in African countries
where UBA has presence.
I must also add that we are
leaders in electronic banking
in Ghana – having chalked a
number of firsts in the electronic
banking space in Ghana.
As practiced in some other Afri-
can countries, are you looking to
tap Ghana’s unbanked popula-
tion through mobile and agency
banking?
It is important that we extend the
boundaries of formal financial
inclusion in this country and the
onus is on banks in the formal
sector to ensure this. In UBA
Ghana, we have among other
things, set for ourselves the mis-
sion of “democratizing bank-
ing in Ghana with world-class
customer-driven solutions”. To this
end we:
• introduced a Cashless
Account product that enables
customers to open a bank
account without immediate
balance;
• were the first bank to intro-
duce mobile banking in
Ghana;
• introduced the Text-Me-Cash
product as a variant of our
mobile banking product,
that enables a customer to
transfer cash to anyone from
anywhere through the use of
a mobile phone;
• have an e-village kiosk at the
Accra Mall where customers
and non-customers alike can
conduct cashless banking
businesses;
• have signed on to all the avail-
able mobile money platforms
– Mobile Money, Airtel Money
and Tigo Cash – that allow
the transfer of funds by mobile
phone users;
• have a partnership with
Melcom Supermarket in rolling
out our Melcom Supersaver
loyalty card, for shoppers at
that supermarket; and also
put in place a cardless ATM
cash withdrawal service.
We believe that mobile and
agency banking is the next logi-
cal thing for banks in Ghana and
we are happy with the efforts
Bank of Ghana has made so far
in pushing cashless economy
agenda in the country.
Which particular sectors of
Ghana’s economy is UBA Ghana
targeting?
UBA as a Group has a mandate
for aligning our policies to the
economic growth and devel-
opmental aspirations of our host
countries. To this end, country
subsidiaries are required to focus
on key sectors driving the econo-
mies of their host countries. In
that way, the impact of the
Bank’s financial intermediation
role is maximized.
In Ghana, the sectors driving the
economy now, in our view, are
Agriculture, Energy [oil, gas and
power], ICT, Commerce, Trans-
port [road, air and shipping],
Mining, as well as, Public Sec-
tor. These sectors, together with
their value chain, are what UBA
Ghana is currently focusing on
and our structure is designed to
take care of that.
In addition, we are equally strong
on e-banking products and the
facilitation of payments and col-
lections for businesses across vari-
ous countries in Africa.
What do you think are the big-
gest problems when it comes to
banking in Ghana and how can
they be solved?
The problem of financial exclu-
sion. This is a challenge facing
countries in sub-Saharan Africa,
where according to McKinsey
& Company, 80% of the adult
population do not have formal
bank accounts. Ghana’s un-
banked adult population has
been estimated at about 65%.
In Ghana, the main reason for a
large number of unbanked adults
is the need to establish KYC for
retail customers. It is so difficult
to clearly establish the identity
of individual and SME custom-
ers. This is so because streets
are not named and houses are
not consistently numbered. Until
recently Passports, Voter ID cards
and Driver’s Licence, which were
used for KYC purposes, were
documents that could easily
be forged. Thankfully, the solu-
tion to this problem has already
begun. All the three documents
mentioned are now produced
using the biometric technology
and hence difficult to forge. It
is, however, still important that
Government continues to pursue
the issue of National ID Cards
for all residents in Ghana. The
exercise has already begun in
some regions and I hope it will be
followed to its logical conclusion.
Growing the Seed