Accra, June 12, GNA - Non-banking financial institutions are indispensable tools in the drive for Ghana's sustainable economic development, Finance Minister Kwabena Duffuor said on Thursday. "In today's fast-paced and globally linked world, no country can progress without a viable and vibrant financial sector," Dr Duffuor said in an address read on his behalf at the re-branding of Ghana Financial Services Limited in Accra.

The company, a non-banking financial institution, has been re-branded and renamed Bayport Financial Services, Ghana (BFSG). Dr Duffuor said government had put in place strategies to encourage non-banking financial institutions to improve their services, especially payments systems.

The strategies include promoting the formal and informal financial sectors through increasing network and capacity building, he said. Dr. Duffuor noted that the cost of doing business in Ghana was relatively high and posed direct risk to new businesses, mainly due to the high cost of borrowing from financial institutions. "The low level of Ghana's overall financial intermediation compared to other sub-Saharan African countries further constraints financial and private sector growth," he noted.

He urged management to make micro credit services accessible to customers at the most convenient time and place through branch expansion.

BFSG, which was incorporated in Ghana in June 2003, presently operates 25 branches in Ghana. The company offers loans to its varied clients that include public and civil servants as well as private sector employees.