Stanbic Bank Ghana Launch Diaspora Mortgage in London

Stanbic bank, the biggest Bank in Africa and one of the fastest growing banks in Ghana has launched a “Diaspora Mortgage”, the first of its kind specially designed for Ghanaians living abroad in London. The new product offers lower interest rates, greater flexibility, and a safer and secure investment opportunity and a more cost effective means of keeping up with mortgage repayments. Speaking at the launch, Ms Anna Owusu-Sekyere, Home Loans Officer at the bank said, the product has been designed after a careful study of other products on the market. She said the Stanbic Diaspora Mortgage can be used for home completion, building of a new home, equity release and for buy-to-let purposes. Further she explained that, the product has no cap on how much an individual can borrow provided their income can support the repayments and can be tailored to meet individual circumstances with the possibility of the bank providing up to 90% mortgage in some cases. Also because of the problems most Ghanaians abroad go through in getting qualified and certified contractors to build their homes for them, our bank works closely with accredited contractors and architects to undertake the building projects ensuring a complete and total peace of mind for the our customers. – Anna said. Also launched at the same event is the Stanbic Heartland Accounts which offers a suite of banking products to cater for Ghanaians living and working abroad. The account offer a full set of products that allow individuals to send money quickly back home to relatives, manage their money in Ghana, save to build new home or for your children’s education, amongst other things. The accounts can be held in Ghanaian Cedis, USD, EUR, GBP and ZAR. For the Heartland Accounts Customers the bank gives access to a Customer Care Center, full internet banking facilities, and a personal touch through an Executive Banker Service whose duties are to assist the account holders and make their banking experience very convenient and easy. Speaking at the same event, Mr. Alhassan Andani the Chief Executive of the bank appealed to Ghanaians in the Diaspora to take advantage of the facility the bank has put in place and invest in Ghana. Making reference to the first set of estates that were sold by Parakou Estate in 1984 for 4.5million cedis, (GH4, 500.00), he said today those same houses are going for over GH250, 000.00 on the market. He further said the housing market in Ghana appreciates between 14 to 20% annually which provides a good return in investment. He said some companies such as the African development Bank which wanted to relocate to Ghana during the Ivorian crises could not do so because they couldn’t find accommodation for their workers. The event which was coordinated by the Ghana High Commission, UK and held at the premises of the commission’s High-gate offices was chaired by the High Commissioner of Ghana to the UK His Excellency Emmanuel Victor Smith.