uniBank on Wednesday launched a new investment banking product that aims to improve the savings habits of Ghanaians and to encourage them save to address specific financial needs and to achieve planned goals quicker.
Dubbed the Goal Savers Account, the risk-free savings plan seeks to encourage individuals to save towards specific projects and objectives while attracting higher interest rates.
Mr Clifford Mettle, General Manager, International Banking and Product Development, said the Goal Savers Account, which is a capital accumulation offered flexibility as well as providing higher interest rates to enable one's savings grow faster.
It also encourages accumulation of wealth through a consistent monthly payment into the Goal Saver account.
"The Goal Saver Account is designed to offer the avenue of saving toward a goal. One can also use the Goal Savers Account as a Voluntary Retirement Savings Plan to supplement the retirement income provided by SSNIT or pensioned plans," he said.
Mr Mettle said the product target market include individuals, traders, market women and students among others, adding that customer segments goes beyond demographic and psychographic segments.
To qualify an account holder and non-primary account holders must be 18 years and above and would need to fill the Goal saver account form as well as make an initial deposit of GH¢50.
Mr Mettle said there would be no fees for transactions and the holder has free access to uniWeb to track the performance of the savings plan.
In addition, interest rate would be calculated on daily basis and credited bi-yearly while accounts holders had the flexibility to withdraw 20 percent of the available balance from their account after operating it for three months.
However, only a maximum of two withdrawals are allowed in a year.
The launch of the product which is part of the bank's 10 year anniversary celebrations activities also coincided with the World Savings Day, which seeks to developed strategies to meet the needs of the unbanked to help to alleviate poverty.
"In uniBank, we believe that we can enhance savings with certain campaigns and initiatives such as the development and launch of the Goal Saver Account," Mr Mettle added.
Mr Felix Nyarko-Pong, Chief Executive Officer uniBank, commended government and other stakeholders for working assiduously to ensure the quick removal of Ghana from the blacklist of money laundering and terrorism financing countries.
He said uniBank would work with the Central Bank and government to deepen financial inclusion and assured customers of the bank that it would meet the GH¢60 million capitalisation requirement before the deadline of December 31, 2012.