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Business News of Saturday, 28 July 2007

Source: samuel colemansamuel.coleman@dailyexpressonline.com

Barclays opens door to Spintex businesses

Barclays Bank has officially opened its Spintex Road branch for business with a call on businesses operating in the area to make Barclays their home for banking. This is one of many other branches the bank is opening and re-opening across the country.

Barclays Managing Director Margaret Mwanakatwe urged the businesses including the small ones scattered along the area to take advantage of the numerous products and services the bank has on offer and add value to their businesses.

Though among the first to pitch camp on the Spintex Road, Barclays has all these years operated it as a Prestige centre catering for its elite customers.

With the area becoming a hub for increased business activities and residential concern, Barclays according Mrs. Mwanakatwe has decided to roll out a full service branch to ?increase accessibility to their unique and innovative products and services.?

In her address at the official inauguration of the branch, the Managing Director confirmed that the Spintex branch forms part of a massive retail expansion programme. Eleven (11) branches will be opened before September 2007.

The Barclays Bank Spintex Road branch, headed by David Ofori ?Mensah is located opposite Kpogas furniture just around the Coastal Estates junction.

Deputy Central Bank Governor Lionel Van Lare Dosoo who inaugurated the bank said the opening of the Spintex branch by Barclays could not have come at a more appropriate time than now when the bank is celebrating 90 years of operation and existence in Ghana.

Currently it is believed that 80% of the Ghanaian population does not bank their monies. Mr. Dosoo is hoping that the opening of the Spintex branch and others would help with efforts to get more people to access banking and financial services.

He added that the new reforms including the credit report act, foreign exchange law and the coming into effect of a national biometric smart card and a national switch are all efforts by the central bank to make the banking industry better.