Accra, Sept. 8, GNA - Stanbic Bank Ghana on Monday handed over 200 buses worth six million dollars to the Ghana Private Road Transport Union (GPRTU) as part of the Bank's partnership with the Union to ensure safety in the transportation industry.

The Nissan buses each costing 30,000 dollars would be paid for by the union in instalments of between four and five years.

Speaking at the handing-over ceremony in Accra, Mr Alhassan Andani, Managing Director of Stanbic Bank Ghana, said the bank was committed to ensuring that road accidents were brought under control.

"Nothing is going to get in the way of improving passenger transport; nothing was going to stop us from creating wealth for the country and from taking banking services closer to the millions of our countrymen currently unbanked," he said.

According to him, nothing was also going to distract the bank from supporting entrepreneurs and contributing to the government's mass transport objective.

Stanbic Bank last year signed a Memorandum of Understanding with GPRTU to provide the union with a loan that would help them procure new buses to change their fleet.

The bank's objective is to reduce road accidents and also reduce the spate of highway robberies.

Eighty-eight busses were purchased from Auto Parts and supplied to the union last year. The bank has also set up a revolving fund of about 50 million dollars through which the buses are procured.

Alhaji Issah Tetteh, Acting National Chairman of the GPRTU, commended the Bank for its initiative and promised to ensure that the buses were maintained.

He said the GPRTU was committed to ensuring that people travelled safely on Ghanaian roads hence their willingness to acquire the buses. Alhaji Tetteh said the Union would ensure that the members paid up promptly for other commercial vehicle operators to benefit from the venture.