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FBN Bank has launched a gender-focused account designed for women across different segments.
Dubbed FirstGem, the account is to drive economic empowerment and wealth creation for women.
The account is also designed for female professional and entrepreneurs to promote financial inclusion with a second-level KYC (Know Your Customer) requirement.
The launch, held at the forecourt of the Ghana Association of Bankers Tuesday, March 14 was to also commemorate the International Women's Day (IWD) which is celebrated on March 8 every year.
The Head of Retail Banking at FBN, Allen Quaye, said his outfit believed in empowering women professionally and financially to achieve their goals.
"To make this true and to live the goal of empowering women professionally and financially, FBN Bank introduces the FirstGem account which is an account for Women with very skewed benefits which includes a higher interest rate reward for deposit and a lower interest rate far lower than commercial lending rate, among others," he said.
He added that the FirstGem Account came in three variants targeted at the individual women and women in business with an initial deposit of GH¢100.
The first variant, he said, was the FirstGem Current Account, for individuals followed by the FirstGem Saving account for individuals and the FirstGem Finance, for registered businesses owned by women entrepreneurs.
The Managing Director of FBN Bank, Victor Yaw Asante, said the bank was careful in ensuring that women were at the core of their work and operations.
By that he said the company had dedicated the entire month of March to celebrate female colleagues, customers, mothers, daughters and other stakeholders as a recognition of their “impact on bringing positive balance to our lives and as a mark of respect for them”.
“It is a fact women play a critical role in the economic, social and cultural development of any community and when given the opportunity, they can drive conversations around promoting a world free of gender bias and discrimination,” he said.
The Chairperson of FBN Bank Women Network, Grace Isaac-Aryee, also said entrepreneurship and technological innovation played a crucial role in developing the economy by creating job opportunities, improving skills and executing new ideas.
“This is why it is necessary that we all work together to deliver on the essence of the theme for this year’s International Women’s Day celebration, “DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality,” she said.
