FINANCIAL institutions have been urged to support the efforts of the Central Bank in educating the public on the use of financial products, such as the e-zwich to inject more dynamism in the country’s financial sector.
The Member of Parliament (MP) for Tarkwa-Nsuaem in the Western Region, Ms Gifty E. Kusi, who made the call, said there was the need for all financial institutions to ensure that the use of biometrics technology (e-zwich) launched recently by the Bank of Ghana (BoG) covered every aspect of their operations.
The MP was speaking at the launch of the Tarkwa branch of Stanbic Bank Ghana.
She said aside of the BoG’s moves to make banking easy for the public, it was important for financial institutions in the country also to design products that would complement the efforts of the Central Bank.
Ms Kusi said apart from the educated few, there were many illiterate or semi-literate people in the society, so it was the duty of the financial sector to take this into consideration when designing products.
“Concerted efforts must be made to reverse the declining trends in the level of savings, as more than 75 per cent of total currency issued by the BoG is outside the banking sector,” the MP stated, adding that the situation did not augur well for the country.
She said it was not good that a large pool of funds was circulating outside the formal financial system and added that there should be more innovative products such as the e-zwich to avoid people continuing to keep their incomes under their beds and metal boxes or burying it underground.
Ms Kusi said during fire outbreaks in the various markets recently, many market women lost a chunk of their capital through the disaster and reiterated her call on financial institutions to consider the informal sector when designing products for the public.
“There are many benefits in saving money at the banks to ensure that in case of any disaster, people would not lose everything,” Ms Kusi emphasised.
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