Some Banks Turning Their Female Bankers Into 'Prostitutes'

Some reputable banks in Ghana are allegedly turning their female bankers into ‘prostitutes’ in their drive for aggressive deposit mobilization, City & Business Guide has gathered.

All banks in Ghana expect their employees to bring customers each month to save with them, but interestingly the same banks regularly set unrealistic targets with stiff deadlines for the employees to meet, leaving them with no options than doing the ‘unthinkable.’

These targets range between GH¢30,000 and GH¢50,000 per employee per month, a situation that has generated an aggressive competition.

City & Business Guide has gathered information which suggests that some notable banks have by convention, accepted ‘sex trade’ between their staff and prominent personalities so they could win them as clients.

Miss Rita Araba (not her real name) is a young, educated and beautiful lady. She is 25 years old and any man’s dream girl.

She enjoys a mouth-watering salary and welfare package, dresses well, rides one of the best and latest ranges of automobiles and the envy of her less endowed and less privileged peers.

Regrettably, Araba recently had to resign from one of the oldest and reputable banks in Ghana as Marketing Executive because she could not withstand the pressure from her employers to warm the bed of a multi-millionaire potential client.

The target she must meet, either by hook or by crook, was not directly to sleep with any man, but certainly the package of her job included ‘going all out’ to get the men, even if to date them, irrespective of their ages.

“That is what my job entails. I travel the length and breadth of the country, even on short notice. Sometimes, I and some of my female co-workers have to travel with a client outside the country.

Most people envy us but they do not know what we go through. It is dehumanising, it is traumatic,” she told City & Business Guide in an exclusive interview in Accra recently.

But Araba is not alone in this sex business as her story represents the ordeal of several other female bankers who are coerced into engaging in sexual escapades to break the bar to meet unrealistic goals.

“I know of countless female bankers, young and old, who are “forced” to use their bodies to generate funds for their employers,” she confessed.

Another victim of this canker, who works in a bank in Kumasi, said: “I am doing it for a living. I cannot talk to you in details, Mr. Journalist because my boss would suspect me when the story is out and I would be fired period.”

Interestingly, a number of bankers City & Business Guide spoke to deny the practice of what is being referred to as ‘corporate prostitution’ but one of them who wanted to remain anonymous, admitted it exists in the corporate world, adding that, nobody in the corporate environment will practically admit it.

“We have witnessed a situation where a female bank employee was given a job in January and by March was expected to meet a target of over GH¢50,000” the source said, noting that realistic target per employee per month should be around GH¢6,000.

It is therefore no longer surprising dozens of women are seen everyday parading the corridors of offices knocking on doors, and once let in, some would begin to weep, begging for help to meet their target or they will get sacked, he added.

The banker blamed the development on what they called Monthly Performance Report (MPR), whereby a banker is called by the board and told to account for everything he or she has done so far.

“And for a young lady who was given a target of over GH¢30,000 a month, she would want to impress for the sake of her job.

If such a lady could not meet the target and has nobody or connection, she would be humiliated, especially with all sorts of questions and executive comments being passed on her.

She is also rated based on the target she is given, so she would be under pressure. So for a lady who does not have the fear of God in her, she would succumb,” the banker said.

According to him, the bank manager would never tell a female banker to become a sex slave to a customer but by action and character, the insinuations are glaring.

“But the lady is mature enough to know what is right because it is believed that anybody that works in a corporate organisation is an adult,” he stated, advising that there were many ways to meet targets without going into that.

He said money could be sourced from financial institutions, pension fund managers, real businessmen, clubs, insurance houses and churches, among others. He observed that ladies engaged in corporate prostitution were those who saw nothing wrong with that habit.

“Most organisations are known for using cute and elegant ladies as secretaries, customer service attendants, knowing fully well that putting gorgeous ladies in the forefront of any organisation tends to cheer up customers,” the source said, stressing that when it comes to marketing, it does not matter whether a lady is beautiful or not, it is the skill and expertise that matter most.

Another source, who also would not want her name mentioned, sees it from a different point of view.

She thinks bank managers are not to be blamed because they are also under pressure to increase cash deposits.

According to her, such pressure usually comes from the board to the managing director who passes it down the ladder to the business development officers commonly known as marketers who are the ‘foot soldiers’ interacting with customers to bring in deposits.

“Most CEOs of these banks were in a hurry to respect the prudential guidelines, credit administration procedures and professional ethics. Their focus was aggressive deposit mobilization using our poor and in most cases, innocent ladies as baits.”

“Recent reports revealed that less than 20 percent of Ghanaians still save with banks so the 26 banks operating in the country have to struggle to get their portion of this percentage,” the source noted.

She disclosed that from her experience and observation, ladies that indulged in ‘corporate prostitution’ ended up inflicting pains on themselves. They either contacted diseases, unable to settle down and marry or they ended up with a broken marriage, she explained.

Professor Ken Agyeman Attafuah, a renowned criminologist and human rights advocate, told City & Business Guide when contacted that he had not heard about the issue of ‘corporate prostitution’ in Ghana.

He said he had personally been approached by female staff from a financial institution to bank with them, adding “anytime she came to me she was accompanied by a male companion. She acted professionally and I did not get the sense that she was under any pressure,” he continued.

Prof. Attafuah however said excessive exploitation of women especially for commercial purposes had become problematic and needed the concerted efforts to combat. He said voices of males were extremely important to the struggle to emancipate women from exploitation.

The Public Relations Officer of UT Bank, Mrs. Sophia Lissah, on her part, was shocked about the news but said her outfit had never indulged in such immoral acts.

When reached for comment, Mrs Theophyline Bannerman, Public Relations Officer of Merchant Bank said: “We have genuine ways of attracting customers to save with us and not through sex.

Banks who are therefore turning female bankers into prostitutes in their drive for deposit mobilization must stop.”

Ghana is not the only country that the issue of ‘corporate prostitution’ has surfaced. In Nigeria, The Compass Newspaper reported that a married woman has sued her former employer (name withheld) for N1 billion “in general and punitive damages” for the trauma she was made to pass through while working for the bank.

The woman, according to the report, was employed as a Priority Sales Support Officer and was later given specific instructions by her employer to sleep with a popular politician for the man to transfer his account to the bank but she declined.

The woman was later assigned to manage a new campaign of proximity banking and this involved taking the services to the customers wherever they might be found. She was asked to go to hotels frequented by the rich and the wealthy, where she was expected to entice some of the men with her beauty.

The lady was further directed by her boss to use expensive perfumes, wear short skirts and other sexually inviting outfits to attract rich men.

She was also given open cheques to use at a popular hotel, as part of contingency arrangements should the need arise. But her resolve to uphold her marital vows forced her to resign her appointment with the bank. The matter was said to be at the Enugu High Court in Nigeria.