Mr Frank Owusu-Ofori, the Head of Corporate Affairs, GN Bank in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra, said management had started the transition process and their immediate objective was to find the liquidity needed to serve the needs of their clients.

The Bank of Ghana on January 4, 2019, approved the grant of a Savings and Loans company licence to GN Bank, following the bank’s inability to meet the Minimum Capital directive of GHC400 million by December 31, 2018.

Mr Owusu-Ofori said management had opted to operate as a Savings and Loan institution with the aim to recapitalize and attain the GHS 400 million, adding that, the bank is still open for business as usual.

“We can confidently inform our customers that their funds are safe because the decision allows us to concentrate on ensuring maximum liquidity to sustain the business, instead of raising funds for additional capital as a universal bank.

We operated in the recent past successfully as a Savings and Loans Company for eight years, so, we can assure our customers that with our attention back to managing the business, we are poised to deliver products and services beyond excellence,” he added.

He said management had sent a text message to customers to be calm as they undergo the six months transitional process.  He said the outfit was capable of ensuring financial inclusion and bringing the unbanked into the formal sector, adding that, the company’s financial institution has two intertwined branches – traditional banking and micro-enterprise business.

Mr Owusu-Ofori explained that “the power of the two makes the company unique and special because it took hard work to be where we are, with 1.2 million customers and 20 per cent of the Ghanaian banking retail outlets in the country.

“We invested heavily in opening offices in all the ten regions of Ghana. When we opened our doors, the unbanked population was 80 per cent. Today, it has fallen to 55 per cent. Our continued existence will ensure that the percentage of the population that is unbanked will reduce further,” he added.

A visit to the Teshie branch in Accra, the GNA observed that the staff of the bank were in the office to ensure that work was ongoing, as some of the customers visit the office to transact business.  At the Ring Road and Ridge branches, the situation remained calm as customers visit the offices intermittently for enquiries.

GN Bank has over 200 operational branches spread across the regions.