The Board Chairman of GN Bank, Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom, has reiterated the resolve of shareholders, directors and management of the bank to do all it takes to ensure that the bank recovers fully from recent challenges, to deliver more efficient banking services to Ghanaians.

“That is the reason managers and directors of GN Bank, led by myself [Dr Papa Kwesi Nduom], are crisscrossing, once again, the entire country to restore business back to normal by assuring customers of GN Bank that we’re here to do good business with them,” said Dr Nduom.

He was speaking to Today in an interview yesterday on the sidelines of his second nationwide tour with a focus on indigenous banks.

And as part of the second national tour, Dr Nduom yesterday visited Dzemeni in the Volta Region and Nsawam, Eastern Region—both locations having branches of GN Bank.

At these two places, he spent some quality time interacting with customers of GN Bank and gave them the firmest assurance that the bank has come to stay and do good business, assuring them that their monies were safe.

Dr Nduom affirmed that the continuous existence of GN Bank was critical to assisting the central government in many of its development agenda. Using the government’s One District, One Factory (1D, 1F) policy to buttress his case, he indicated that it was one area GN Bank can offer tremendous support since it is the only universal bank in a number of districts.

In his view, “Ghana Without Aid” needs strong, indigenous financial institutions with patient, long-term development vision like GN Bank.”

He also told Today that shareholders of the bank have injected new monies into the bank this year, adding that they were still expecting to put in more money to augment the bank’s operations.

To this end, he indicated that management and directors of the bank were leaving nothing to chance to ensure that they attract new funds and depositors.

“After interacting with many of the GN Bank customers in Dzemeni and Nsawam, they felt assured doing business with GN Bank,” Dr Nduom said. He, however, said it was regrettable that some people do not seem to appreciate the contribution GN Bank was making to the development of this nation.

GN Bank, he intimated, is one indigenous bank that has proactively brought loads of people in the unbanked space to the formal sector, stressing that it will continue to provide safe banking services to its over 1.2 million customers and more.

“And no bank in this country can match GN Bank when it comes to banking the unbanked and expanding financial inclusion,” Dr Nduom contended.

“We are proud of our association with the ordinary person in Ghana,” he said, and pointed to the “The People’s Bank” slogan of the company.

He was quick to mention names of towns such as Widana, Kwame Danso, Dzemeni, Nandom, Akontombra, Asebu, and many others.

GN Bank, he indicated, has the lowest cost per location in the country. Explaining further, Dr Nduom said: “we put up types of buildings and staffing to suit the business in a particular area,” adding that the 300 locations of the bank make up 10% of retail outlets in Ghana.

According to him, most of the 300 locations of GN Bank are not rented facilities, but built by the bank to “suit our type of banking in a particular area.”

Dr Nduom also stressed that GN Bank has continuously championed the cause of savings than any other bank in the country, recounting the number of customers GN Bank attracted when it introduced its 9% interest plus a 1,000 Ghana Cedi life insurance cover for all regular savings account customers.

He noted that it was unfortunate that GN Bank is the hardest hit in the wake of the panic withdrawal that hit the banking sector.

However, he attributed that to the fact that GN Bank has branches all over the country. The bigger banks, he said, have been around for decades so it is important that newer ones like GN Bank are given a good chance to grow stronger and succeed.

“Life, is neither fair nor free of challenges,” said Dr Nduom. What matters, he said, was how “you move to resolve challenges and unfair situations when they happen.

According to him, he is certain GN Bank will work through the challenges successfully and in the long term become a formidable indigenous bank capable of providing solutions to support national development and private sector goals.