Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Global Access CEO Heads GHASALC



Emmanuel O. Owusu – CEO of GASL & current GHASALC president.


Posted on: www.dailyguideghana.com

By William Yaw Owusu

Accra, Monday September 17, 2012
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Global Access Savings and Loans (GASL), Emmanuel O. Owusu has been elected president of Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies (GHASALC).

GHASALC, which has been in existence for about a decade, is being positioned to contribute effectively to the development of small scale banking and Mr. Owusu is optimistic that the immediate goals set for the association would be attained.

He told CITY & BUSINESS in Accra on Friday that there was the need to ensure that companies are properly regulated to enhance the sector.

He said his three priority areas involve ensuring that savings and loans companies get on the automated cheque clearing house platform at the Bank of Ghana (BoG), allowing the companies to deal in forex and foreign trade finance and strengthening the capacity of the association.

On the automated cheque clearing platform, Mr Owusu, who acclaimed for introducing weekend money transfer services, said “we consider this as very necessary to our business if we are going to move the sector forward. We want to go to the clearing house directly and not through correspondent banks.”

He said the inability of the association to deal in forex and foreign trade financing is not a healthy development, adding, “Indeed, the steady growth of SMEs and their increasing demands for financial products make it a business case for us to persuade the BoG to reconsider its directive.”

He said that the BoG’s data shows that about 70 per cent of Ghanaians do not have bank accounts.

Mr. Owusu said based on the BoG’s statistics, savings and loans companies must position themselves to provide products and services that would encourage non-banking Ghanaians to join mainstream banking.

Mr. Owusu called on member companies to share information in the sector, saying “industry-related analysis cannot be achieved if members do not make available to the secretariat monthly management accounts and other forms of data.”

He said building a strong association would help them to gain more recognition and become a key stakeholder in the banking and financial sector.

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