By
Dennis Osei Gyamfi, GNA
Accra, July 6, GNA – Mr Ben Gustave Barth,
Co-founder of Axcero Advisors, West African focused Corporate Advisory, has
said local banks in Ghana need more support to grow in order to support
national development.
The finance and consulting executive said, the
central bank’s decision to set regulatory requirements for these banks was
laudable and should be encouraged.
He said that many local banks needed support
and that the central bank’s intervention to help was timely, adding that the
local banks needed more of that technical support.
“What we need is to create that enabling
environment for some sort of support to the banking sector to be able to
adequately provide that level of support to the national economy. So I am big
advocate for strict appliance of regulatory requirements, but I am also a big
advocate for technical support to strengthen banks that are weak and failing.
This regulator is doing a great job and needs to be encouraged, but we want to
see more technical support,” Mr Gustave said.
Mr Gustave was speaking as a guest at a public
lecture organized by Webster University in Accra on the theme; “The role of the
banking sector in national development: the case of Africa and Asia.”
Mr Gustave said Ghana’s banking sector had
seen tremendous improvement over the period, which was good for the economy
going forward.
“The banking sector has come a long way. I
must say that we have some very strong banks in Ghana. You know even amidst
this minimum capital requirement, which is being instituted by the regulator,
we still have very strong banks with strong fundamentals, corporate governance
amongst the banking sector has largely improved and credit under writing has
improved comparing it to ten years ago.”
“I must say that we have much stronger banks
than before. We can do more in supporting national agenda. It has been a
fantastic experience so far, but more can be done,” he said.
He added that, the banking sector needed to be
stronger in the case of capitalization and urged banks to have avenue to pull
skilled and talented industry practitioners to support.
Mr Gustave concluded that “the whole financial
sector requires a lot of focus not only banks but every player.”
Dr Hung-Gay Fung, Visiting Faculty, University
of Missouri in St Louis, USA on his part said that, Ghana’s current open module
in the banking sector, rendered the local banks uncompetitive.
He said the challenge, facing the banking
sector was the free competition for both local and foreign banks, adding, the
local banks must be given special preference to the foreign banks.
“Foreign banks and local banks compete
equally, this module is fair but the problem is that, it does not give
production to domestic industries. Because when the government implements
monetary policy, they need local banks to carry it not foreign banks. So in
other to be effective, you need local banks to support the government policies.
And in other to support that policy, you have to protect the local banks by
making sure the local banks make money, so that they can survive in the longer
run,” Dr Fung said.
“In China, they do not give foreign banks
license because when you do that, you undermine the competition of the local
banks.”
Mrs Martha Quainoo Amakwah, Director for
enrolment for Webster Ghana campus, said that, the public lecture was organised
to help in bridging the gap between the industry players and academia.
She said it offered the platform for open
discussion to give students a better perspective of the reality in the field.
The Webster University Ghana Campus, which was
established in 2013, have received accreditation from both the National
Accreditation Board and the Higher Learning Commission of the US.
The Ghana Campus is also the first in
sub-Saharan Africa in Webster’s 102-year history. Webster University, is an
American University based in St. Louis, Missouri, and has a network of
American-style residential international campuses in nine countries spanning
over four continents.
GNA