The maiden West African Banking Congress opens in Accra

Accra, Oct 2, GNA - The first West African Banking Congress opened in Accra on Thursday with a call on banks to revamp their corporate strategies to enable them to take advantage of the opportunities across the West African sub-region to promote growth and profitability. Mr Emmanuel Ekong, Group Chairman of Business in Africa Group, who made the call, said banking reforms in the last decade had brought competition in the industry and encouraged most banks to recapitalize. "With increased competition and bigger balance sheet sizes, indigenous banks in the sub-region are proving they are also capable of spreading their franchise across the sub-region just as their foreign counterparts have done for decades," Mr Ekong said. According to him, the banking reforms had given meaning to the concept of regional integration with sub-regional banks spreading their networks across West Africa and other parts of the continent facilitating trade and investment. Mr Ekong expressed the hope that the two-day conference would provide the platform to learn more about the opportunities created by on-going reforms in the sub-region. The conference, organized by Business in Africa Magazine and Business and Financial Times, is also focused on creating deep industry insight for the regional and global banking industry by focusing on new business ideas and innovation. Professor Cletus Dordunoo, Chief Executive Officer, Claydord Consult, said the implementation of harmonized policies across the sub-region would give impetus to accelerating the level of investment. 02 Oct. 08