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GCB Bank PLC has launched an insurance package designed to protect traders from unforeseen losses.
Dubbed: “Value Added Package (VAP)”, it aims to provide traders with comprehensive coverage against circumstances such as fire and illness among others that can lead to business interruptions.
The GH¢20,000 package which is available to customers who have a regular minimum deposit of GH¢50,000 is part of the bank’s efforts to support micro and small enterprises (MSEs) by safeguarding their businesses from financial risks.
As part of the event held in Accra yesterday, participants were trained in how to boost their business skills and improve their financial literacy.
This included training in book and record keeping, international trade documentation, how to make their businesses bankable, GCB Products, Investment solutions and technology for trading.
The bank also held a free health screening for participants and traders on the sidelines of the event.
Healthcare experts offered various medical services including checking blood pressure, blood sugar, eyes, ears, optical services and general wellness for free.
Beneficiaries also received relevant medication, appropriate counselling and consultation services while others, who had to go to the hospital for further tests, were referred for further treatment also for free.
At the launch, the bank’s Executive Head of Retail, Sina Kamagate, said MSEs served as the backbone of the country’s economy and as such, it should be the obligation of banks to offer them financial assistance whenever they needed it.
“Today, if you go on Google and you type, what is the biggest challenge of SME for which MSE is a subset, the first thing that will appear is financing, but banks are established to provide credit facilities.”
So the puzzle is, why would banks whose mission is to provide credit facilities run away from doing that? It is because there are some bottlenecks,” he said.
Against this background, Mr Kamagate noted that as one of the country’s oldest financial institutions, his outfit was always committed to supporting traders irrespective of the scale of their operations.
He added that the package was not only to protect customers who had kept the faith and continued to do “good business” with the bank but to also encourage other customers to bank their deposits.
This, he said, would enable them to easily access financial help such as short-term loans.
The Managing Director of the Makola Market Company, John Appea encouraged traders and business owners to take advantage of the package to protect themselves and their businesses.
“The essence of this is to help us all as business owners bridge that gap and eliminate that obstacle of funding which is always said to be the number one challenge for small businesses in our part of the world to be once and for all addressed effectively,” he said.
The Vice-President, Regent University College of Science and Technology, Prof. Samuel Lartey, shared some perspectives at the event, saying financial success was not a matter of luck but of wise planning, persistence and learning.
He said even in moments of financial difficulty, solutions can come from unexpected places when business owners have knowledge and act with purpose.
He was of the strong opinion that, through discipline, sound investments and learning from one’s mistakes, they can make it, adding that financial success was not a matter of luck but of wise planning, persistence and learning.”
Prof. Lartey said: “As you grow your businesses, remember these lessons: have knowledge, faith, be resourceful, and above all, practice financial discipline.
The path to success is paved with knowledge and action.
