Accra, Jan. 22, GNA - Vice President Alhaji Aliu Mahama on Monday asked the commercial banks to extend credit to the micro and small-scale enterprises that are noted to promote growth in most countries. He said banks had the tendency of focusing on big and viable corporations and companies to the neglect of small-scale entrepreneurs. Vice President Mahama was speaking at a ceremony in Accra to change the corporate identity of Standard Trust Bank to United Bank for Africa (UBA) Limited, born out of a merger between the two banks. The merger makes UBA biggest the financial entity in West Africa with over 500 branches.

He appealed to UBA to cultivate small enterprises through innovative credit practices that would ensure that profit success is based on monitoring and financial counselling rather than reliance on collateral security.

Vice President Mahama expressed the hope that the bank would actively partner with the Ghanaian business community to help accelerate the development of the private sector and the growth of the national economy.

"I say this because the primary objectives of banks is the mobilisation of financial resources from surplus units for on lending to deficit units in the productive sectors of the economy."

Vice President Mahama said: "The pedigree of UBA over the years in terms of its innovativeness and creativity have been amazing. In discharging your social responsibility in Ghana, I urge the UBA Group to extend its partnership to the Ghanaian health sector and to identify strongly with other worthy causes in our society."

Professor Gyan Baffour, a Deputy Minister of Finance and Economic Planning, said although the economy was in good health the interest rate of 20 per cent was unacceptably high to the business community and expressed the need for a downward review.

He said the country's growth rate of 6.5 per cent was also not good enough.

Dr Paul Acquah, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, called on UBA to diversify its products and ensure efficient service delivery, citing the lineage of the bank for wining the Euro 2000 award for excellence as the best domestic bank in Nigeria among other awards.

Mr Tony Elumelu, Group Managing Director of the Nigeria-based international bank, said UBA had to its credit 100 billion dollars on the balance sheet, with two billion cedis deposits in its New York branch.

He said UBA sought to integrate the sub-region through finance to facilitate the dream of the Economic Commission for West Africa. Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo, MD and Chief Executive Officer of UBA, Ghana, said Standard Trust Bank was the first to launch innovative products like Ghana's first zero deposit account and the Standard Cashless Account

The bank had also introduced Tele-banking through SMS/Mobile banking "Text Me Cash", and 24-hour on-line banking transactions. He said UBA was the only African bank that operated in the United States and Cayman Islands.

Mr Kwame Pianim, Chairman of UBA, Ghana, called on Ghanaians to eschew all xenophobia tendencies and rather transform their proverbial Ghanaian hospitality to a business friendly package that would attract more investors to the country. 22 Jan 07