Ecobank Ghana and GhanaPost have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to deepen financial inclusion and bring banking services to many more Ghanaians and drive the government agenda.
Under the deal, 100 GhanaPost outlets would be used as Ecobank Xpress Points to cater for more Ghanaians.
The programme will start with an initial 78 outlets before 22 more are added.
Ultimately, the plan is to turn all 360 GhanaPost outlets across the country into financial service and agency banking hubs to deepen financial inclusion.
Currently, about 68 per cent of Ghanaians have access to financial services, leaving a 32 per cent gap to be bridged.
Mr Dan Sackey, Ecobank Ghana Managing Director and Kwaku Tabi Amponsah, Deputy MD of GhanaPost signed the MoU and witnessed it by Dr Eddy Botchwey and Kwesi Owusu-Abrokwa.
Commenting on the deal, Mr Sackey lauded the partnership between the two institutions, adding there could not be any better partner for the rollout of the strategy than GhanaPost because of the many outlets spread across the country to drive financial inclusion.
The move, he said, would make it easier for Ghanaians everywhere in the country to have access to ECOBANK’s digital financial services and GhanaPost provides the widespread presence for that to be possible.
He said customers, especially the underserved and unbanked population, would get to have faster, safer and more convenient banking when they access the GhanaPost ECOBANK Xpress Point.
Besides, Ecobank would get to increase its presence across the country more cost-effectively, and also get to drive financial inclusion.
"The call to action is to let all of us join hands together to deepen the financial inclusion agenda across Ghana and Africa. On our part, we shall continue to do this in pursuit of the Ecobank vision of Building a Pan-African Banking Institution that contributes to the Economic Development and Financial Integration of Africa," Mr Sackey added.
Deputy Managing Director of GhanaPost, Kwaku Tabi Amponsah said GhanaPost was working to increase revenue and such strategic collaborations in agency banking were critical to that effort.
He said such innovative partnerships would help GhanaPost to be endowed with new competencies from their various banking and financial service partners.
According to him, the partnership with ECOBANK also puts GhanaPost in a position to help drive Government’s financial inclusion agenda even further, adding that it is his firm belief that the partnership will be for the long term.
The two institutions believe that their collaborative strategy will go a long way in helping to bridge that gap.
As part of the partnership, ECOBANK will advance GHS1 million to GhanaPost to convert their outlets into Ecobank Xpress Points, where they can offer some eight consumer banking services, including deposits, withdrawals, bills payment, remittance, and interbank transfers.
Currently, Ecobank Ghana has 67 branches, with 5000 plus Xpress Points across the country serving over 2.4 million customers.
