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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