Tamale, Feb. 05, GNA - Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) in the Northern Region have been advised to cultivate the habit of saving with banks to benefit from loan facilities to improve their businesses. Mr. Joseph Okine-Afranie, deputy managing director of Prudential Bank Limited (PBL) gave the advice on Thursday during the opening of a new branch of the bank in Tamale.

He said the friendly environment in the Northern region and its fast growth had motivated management to spread its wings to Tamale, and that the Tamale branch is the Bank's 25th in the country, adding that the branches would increase to 30 by the end of 2010. Mr. Okine-Afranie said PBL was a Ghanaian indigenous bank, and that Management had over the 13-years of the bank's existence made efforts to involve petty traders in banking by making interest rates flexible. He said the bank services all sectors of the economy with special focus on SMEs engaged in exports, trading, manufacturing, fishing, cold storage business and other general businesses to increase their productivity.

The Deputy Managing Director said PBL provides one-stop-shop banking services to its customers throughout its braches, which covered operations of current, savings, fixed deposits and call accounts in both local and foreign currencies.

He said the bank had also put measures in place to reach persons who could not come to the bank to transact business saying, "Those who cannot come to us, tell us; we can come to you for the necessary transactions."

Those who can not also go to the bank to check their balance can do so by subscribing to the TEXT system, he added. He indicated that said Prudential Business Savings Account also enabled savers under the scheme to access credit up to 150 per cent of the saver's deposit balance in the account, which he described as the best savings scheme on the market today for micro and small scale operators.

Mr. Okine-Afranie catalogued a number of benefits in the bank and advised the business community in Tamale to take advantage of the bank's flexible interest rates on loans to transact business. The Reverend Father Christopher Deyuo, Parish Priest of the Holy Cross Catholic Cathedral who dedicated the Bank, advised management not to focus on competition but strive to ensure the sustenance of the Bank.