FNB launches in Ghana
First National Bank says it has officially launched a branch in Ghana after obtaining a Universal Banking license in 2015.
|||Johannesburg - First National Bank says it has officially launched a branch in Ghana after obtaining a Universal Banking license from the Bank of Ghana in 2015.
The bank says in a statement issued on Thursday that its Ghana unit opened its doors to the public in late 2015.
First National Bank operates in numerous countries across the continent including Tanzania, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland and South Africa.
CEO, Jacques Celliers: “We took the decision to set up an entirely new ‘green fields’ operation free from existing structures and built a new bank from the ground up. This is an exciting opportunity to build a new bank tailored to the requirements in Ghana, based on technologies that are already proven across all our other operations.
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“Our key objective is to provide electronic and digital banking that is convenient and low-cost to a broad segment of the people of Ghana. At the same time, we are building conventional branches and installing our latest ATMs,” adds Celliers.
First National Bank Ghana will trade under the brand’s logo of a rising African sun and stylised Acacia tree with brilliant turquoise and amber corporate colours.
In addition to the Head Office based at Accra Financial Centre, the bank already has 2 branches, and 4 ATMs with plans to open another 3 branches in Accra in the next two months. The intention is to then expand outside of Accra until the bank has national representation.
“While our footprint is still developing, we have plans to roll out additional branches and ATMs in the next few years and are already offering a full range of digital platforms from Banking App for smart devices to Online Banking,” says CEO of First National Bank Ghana, Richard Hudson.
“We have noted that a large portion of retail payments in Ghana are completed by means of manual payments such as cheques and cash. We believe that with our digital play, we will see a significant move towards electronic payments as customers see the benefits of greater security and convenience when paying electronically,” adds Hudson.
“Ghana is a strategic country for us and we see ourselves growing First National Bank Ghana into a key systematically important bank over time, as we focus on growing the bank’s footprint to other regions of Ghana,” notes says Michael Larbie, Chairman First National Bank Ghana.
IOL