Strengthen bond with management to protect GCB Bank’s matchless record - Professor Alabi to union
The Board Chairman of GCB Bank PLC, Professor Joshua Alabi, has urged the union of the financial institution to build a strong bond with management as the bank aims to reach greater heights beyond the country.
“If we are united towards a common purpose, the benefits would be immense for all of us and the nation,” he said.
Prof. Alabi was speaking at the just-ended sixth Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the GCB Bank Professional and Managerial Staff Union (PMSU) in the Volta Regional capital, Ho.
About 300 delegates from the various zones of the bank attended the two-day conference, which was on the theme: Strengthening the Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) for Ghana’s Economic Transformation — the Role of GCB Bank PLC.
Peaceful coexistence
Prof. Alabi said peaceful coexistence was required between the management and union to maintain the bank’s status as a priceless national asset.
He said the bank's successes would also attract more backing from shareholders, adding that the transformation of the national economy would require the participation of a strong local bank such as the GCB Bank to lead it.
The board chairman said GBC Bank was vigorously pursuing plans to extend its operations to Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Niger, the Gambia and Mali.
That plan would require the teamwork of the entire staff of the bank, Prof. Alabi stressed.
The Managing Director of GCB Bank, Farihan Alhassan, said the bank would support market women and local industries with swift cash flows through its digital and innovative agenda towards economic transformation.
He said the bank was also engaging local and foreign experts to help implement that programme effectively.
“We are also building a team of world-class banking professionals with our capacity building programmes for that purpose,” the MD added.
Mr Alhassan stated that the bank was also positioned to make an impact in the areas of energy, oil and gas with its unmatched business and customer services and modern banking strategies.
Partnership
The Chairman of the GCB Bank PMSU, Muhammed Kamil Ismail, said the union had partnered management well in the quest to make the GCB Bank a distant number one in the industry.
“Our bank, over the years, chartered a cause to make the GCB Bank an outstanding bank in the industry with cutting-edge innovations that not only offer financial solutions to Ghanaians and businesses in Ghana, but also offer solutions with convenience,” he said.
The PMSU chairman mentioned solutions such as the Digital Salary Advance that only required a click of less than 30 seconds on the Mobile App for an account to be credited, and added that the bank’s product pipelines were now pregnant with many more innovative solutions that Ghanaians would witness soon.
“These are happening because we have a forward-looking union which is thinking of the bank first,” Mr Ismail said.
He said the staff of GCB Bank understood the shared vision to elevate the bank by collaborating with management in a way that made its environment one of the most peaceful and conducive for banking to progress.
The union chairman, therefore, urged stakeholders not to take the enviable industrial harmony for granted, else “we risk to derail the gains we have made collectively this far”.
Mr Ismail, who will not seek re-election for another four-year term, called on his colleague union members and management to jealously protect the peaceful environment at GCB Bank.
Multi-faceted strategy
The General Secretary of the Union of Industry, Commerce and Finance Workers (UNICOF) of the Trades Union Congress, Euclid Kofi Ohene, said GCB Bank was established as Ghana’s first and largest indigenous bank with the intention to make it an agent of change, specifically by providing banking services to local businesses.
He said a large proportion of the population was in the informal sector, and MSMEs alone accounted for about 80 per cent of the economy and employed more than 70 per cent of the population.
However, Mr Ohene stated that the MSMEs still faced challenges and that the bank’s focus on MSMEs would help stimulate growth not only in the sector but also in the bank and the overall economy of Ghana.
He said the bank must, therefore, adopt a multi-faceted strategy beyond traditional loans and account opening.
