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Ghanadot profiles....
Corporate profile of Ghana
Commercial Bank (GCB)
Ghana
Commercial Bank Ltd started operations in 1953 as the Bank
of Gold Coast to provide banking services to the emerging
nation for socio-economic development.
The Bank was to
pay special attention to Ghanaian traders, business people
and farmers who could not elicit support from the expatriate
banks.
In 1957, when
Ghana attained independence, Bank of Ghana was established
as the central bank while Bank of Gold Coast was renamed
Ghana Commercial Bank to focus solely on
commercial banking services.
Since then, GCB
has opened branches across the length and breadth of the
nation tapping the potential of the 10 regions that make
Ghana.
The Bank was
wholly government owned until 1996 when under the economic
recovery programme part of the government ownership was
divested. Today, government ownership stands at 21.36% while
institutional holdings add up to 78.64%.
From the one
branch of the 1950s, GCB now has 143 branches and 11 agencies
throughout the country.
GCB abounds in
high quality human resource, which stands at 2,200 as at the
end of 2007. This is remarkable when one considers that the
Bank started with a staff strength of 27. Currently, there
are professionals of various disciplines who work in tandem
to achieve the objectives of the Bank.
The growth of
the Bank has been synonymous with its customer base. During
the first five years of the Bank’s operations, our customers
were mainly small scale Ghanaian traders (now termed SMEs)
and other nationals who were expecting to maintain credit
balance accounts because the bank was not adequately
capitalized. From this insignificant customer base, GCB now
has a customer profile that ranges from salaried workers
through small and medium scale entrepreneurs to large
trading concerns, quasi-government institutions and
corporate customers.
GCB provides a
wide range of products and services for the benefit of its
customers. From the traditional products of Current and
Savings Accounts, GCB now offers specialized products and
services including FODEM for Ghanaian residents abroad,
doorstep cash collection, loans and overdrafts. There are
also investment products like treasury bills as well as
fixed and call deposits. These are cut to suit the
individual needs of customers.
In addition,
GCB has taken advantage of an enhanced information
technology system, to introduce Internet Banking, Commernet
Plus, Royal Banking, Smart pay (Fee Payments), Kudi Nkosuo,
GCB Inland Express Money Transfer and Moneygram.
All these have
been done to increase profits and enhance shareholder value.
GCB in May 2008
won three major awards at the Ghana Banking Awards-Best Bank
Trade Financing, Best Bank-Corporate Social Responsibility
and Best Bank, Financial Performance. Between September
2007, and July this year the Bank also received three
international awards; “BANK OF THE YEAR,” 2007 (by the
Banker Magazine of Financial Times (FT) Group of the UK,
Best Bank in Ghana for the year 2007 by the Global Finance
Publishing Institute of the United States of America (USA)
and Best Bank of the Year-Ghana, received on July 10 last
year at the Euromoney Excellence Award Ceremony in London.
Today, we can
boast of being the widest networked Bank in Ghana.
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