Ho, June 21, GNA-Customers of the Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB) will soon manage their bank accounts in the comfort of their offices and homes.

This is as a result of the Bank's plan to introduce electronic banking to make banking more convenient to its customers. Mr Lawrence Adu-Mante, Managing Director of the Bank disclosed this at a day's workshop organized by the Bank for Small and Medium scale Enterprises (SMEs) in Ho on Thursday.

He said the Bank was conscious of today's business constraints and challenges and was prepared to play its role to reduce the stress that come with pressures through well-tailored products and services. Mr Adu-Mante said, as part of the Bank's re-engineering and investment plans it was rolling out new branches and relocating some existing ones for the convenience of its customers. "To make banking more convenient for you, our dear customers and budding businesses all over the country, the Bank has plans to open more branches to meet the demands of our ever-increasing SME portfolio", he said.

Mr Adu-Mante said the Bank had identified SMEs in agriculture, manufacturing and commerce among others as a major sector of the country's economic and was prepared to nurture them into big corporate bodies in the long term. He said SMEs only have to ensure proper book and record keeping to enhance prompt consideration of their requests. Mr Adu-Mante said the Bank would guarantee relationship banking, advisory services, business development and monitoring of the SMEs for mutual benefit.

He therefore urged SMEs to take advantage of the Bank's new facilities to enhance their accelerated development. Mr Mawutor Goh, Ho Municipal Chief Executive who represented the Volta Regional Minister underscored the importance of capacity building for managers of SMEs for their sustainability and development into bigger corporate bodies. The SMEs were taken through topics including; " Understanding yourself and Your Business, Basic Book-Keeping, Credit Documentation and International Trade Financing," among others, to meet the needs in current business management practices.