[ 2016-11-04 ]

GCB Bank sets GH¢100,000 credit for SMEs
THE GCB Bank Limited has set a credit of
GH¢100,000 with no collateral for Small and
Medium Enterprises(SMEs) to enable them to turn
their businesses around. The package is under the
GCB SME Loan Suite Scheme focused on growing SMEs
into home-grown multinationals.

Other facilities in the suite are bridge loan for
all businesses requiring short-term financing and
urgent support; term loan customised secure loan
for fixed tenor repayable in 36 months; overdraft;
contingent liability, guarantees issued on behalf
of customers and line of credit and a standby
facility for businesses to be used within a
specified period.

The Managing Director of the bank, Mr Ernest
Mawuli Agbesi, announced these schemes at the
fourth quadrennial delegate’s conference of the
Professional and Managerial Staff Union (PMSU) of
the GCB Bank in Ho.

The theme of the conference was “Supporting the
Development of SMEs for Economic Growth—The role
of officers of the GCB Bank Limited.”

He said as a Ghanaian bank there was the need to
support domestic companies with the view to
nurturing them to bolster the economy and to
become competitors at the international level and
added that GCB’s products and services were SME
friendly.

Mr Agbesi said SMEs contributed greatly to the
development of any nation and that in Ghana it
provided about 85 per cent of manufacturing and
employment and contributed 49 per cent to the
country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2012.

He stated that SMEs accounted for 90 per cent of
existing businesses in the country and contributed
to employment creation, provision of basic goods
and services and generation of export and tax
revenues for national socio-economic development.

He said the bank had introduced three strategic
policies aimed at repositioning it and improving
performance as Ghana’s number one and largest
bank and that included the extension of banking
hours from 8.30 a.m. to 5 p.m., the resumption of
Saturday banking in 23 selected branches and
rigorous deposit mobilisation by all staff of the
bank.

Mr Agbesi urged the staff to put the interest of
the bank above all others and to propel GCB Bank
into the limelight because GCB understood the
language of SMEs and had the expertise in managing
SMEs in all sectors.

In his address, the Chairman of PMSU of GCB Bank,
Mr Dominic Cobbinah, said over 800 members of
staff were promoted after a constructive
engagement with the board and that affected
persons had been on their grades for over eight
years.

He said the union had fought for the restoration
of 50 per cent rent allowance to branch managers
and an appreciable increase in staff rent
allowance from five per cent to 15 per cent.

He added that the role of SMEs in an economy could
not be overemphasised because they constituted the
vast majority of businesses in the country and
over the years had evolved to become the key
supplier and provider of services to a large
proportion of the populace.

Mr Cobbinah, therefore, said providing support for
the sector would go a long way to help economic
growth and the achievement of one of the reasons
which led to the establishment of the bank in
1953.

Source - Graphic Online.com

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