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Business News of Thursday, 18 September 2014

Source: B&FT

UT Bank urges public to save

The Deputy Managing Director of UT Bank, Pearl Esua-Mensah has asked people to imbue in themselves the habit of saving in order to accumulate funds to meet their needs.

Her remarks come following the launch of UT Bank’s save and win promotion dubbed “100 for 100, 000” in a bid to enhance the bank’s deposits mobilisation efforts.

Mrs. Esua-Mensah noted that many Ghanaians are unwilling to save but rather prefer to carry huge sums of money, which she said needs to change.

She said the ‘100 for 100,000’ promotion exercise, which is expected to end in December this year, is expected to reward existing customers for saving and also entice news ones as part of efforts to strengthen the relationship between the bank and its patrons.

Customers that want to enter the draw to win the grand prize of GH?100,000 are expected to deposit GH?100 in their account to qualify for the draw, for which other consolation prizes include freezers, microwaves, phones and many more.

Mrs. Esua-Mensah in briefing journalists on the scheme of the promotion, in Accra, said there will be two mini-draws in Tamale and Kumasi and asked them to save more saying: “The more GH?100s you deposit the greater your chance of winning”.

UT Bank, a publicly traded company, is one of the fastest-growing banks in the country, providing innovative customer-oriented products with a focus on SMEs.

Over the years, the bank has positioned itself as the leading bank in SME banking and changed the face of banking in Ghana through fast and efficient delivery of service -- maintaining its key mandate of providing ‘a loan in less than 48 hours’.

Mrs. Esua-Mensah said the bank is convinced that some of its products designed and tailored to meet the banking needs of budget clients have not been fully optimised, and will use the promotion campaign to draw attention to its banking products.

She said as part of measures to get more customers aboard to save, the banks have started operating a flexible savings account called “no wahala” account -- which offers hassle-free ways of opening a savings account as it allows customers to do so without the usual strict requirements.

“We have started operating a new savings account called the “no wahala” account after consultation with the sector regulator, the Bank of Ghana. It only requires customers to provide a valid photo as well as the customer’s ability to write.

“The issue of house address has been challenging, taking into consideration the problems we with our address system. Most people are renting and are thus unable to provide a house address for opening a new account,” she said.