The President, Mr J.A. Kufuor has stressed the need for the development of investment banking in the country. “This is the time for our bankers to accept the challenge and grow businesses, take venturists in hand, give them advice, accept some of the risks and take pride in seeing Ghanaian business flourish.”

Opening the fifth National Banking Conference in Accra on Monday under the theme: “Golden Age of Business and wealth creation: Myth or Reality-the role of the banking industry”, the President in a speech read on his behalf, said there was the need for investment banking to provide long-term capital.

“The industries that we want to encourage such as agricultural processing sector, require medium to long term capital which cannot be raised on the basis of present interest rates,” he added.

Mr Kufuor said that there was the need for the banking industry to be deepened and in response to government’s initiative at stabilizing the economy, it behove on banks to modermize their system.

“Banks should provide innovative products, adopt high professional standards, give prompt attention to customers’ needs, and shorten customer turnaround time to reduce the transaction cost of banking and increase consumer confidence. This means that must invest in the new technologies,” he said.

He stressed the need for the business community to benefit from the falling inflationary rates.