The President of the Ghana Association of Banks and Chief Executive Officer of Stanbic Bank Ghana, Kwamina Asomaning, has outlined a bold and forward-looking roadmap aimed at fortifying Ghana’s banking sector through innovation, resilience, and inclusivity.
Speaking on Joy News, Mr. Asomaning emphasized the need for the financial industry to fully embrace the ongoing Fourth Industrial Revolution, noting that global advancements in data analytics, automation, and robotics are rapidly transforming both manufacturing and service sectors.
“The banking sector shouldn’t be left behind. It’s important that we embrace a lot of the change that is happening in this area,” he stressed. “So the advocacy piece is important, but equally important is the focus on promoting economic policies that strengthen the ability of the banking sector to pursue economic growth and financial inclusion.”
Mr. Asomaning identified five key pillars for the banking sector’s transformation. First among them is collaboration with the Bank of Ghana to establish a more secure, stable, and resilient financial ecosystem.
He noted that economic shocks are an inevitable part of the industry and urged banks to build adequate buffers and adopt sustainable strategies, revealing “Shocks are a constant in this industry. The interval between the shocks might vary, but shocks are a constant. It’s important that we build the right buffers and set up our businesses appropriately so that we can withstand those shocks.”
Secondly, he highlighted the need for the banking sector to focus more deliberately on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which he described as a crucial yet underserved segment of the economy.
“It is a part of the economy that seems to have struggled to raise financing at a decent clip. A lot of studies have been done, and a lot of awareness has been brought to the fore. It’s important for us to help drive that.”
Financial inclusion was another central theme, with Mr. Asomaning calling for greater efforts to reach the unbanked and underbanked populations, acknowledging that fintech firms have outpaced traditional banks in this area.
The fourth pillar he addressed was the improvement of risk management frameworks, particularly non-financial risks like cybersecurity, warning “It’s becoming much easier to take money from banks through digital means. The speed, the velocity at which these risks can crystallize and present us with losses has accelerated.”
Mr. Asomaning called for capacity building within the banking workforce, especially in areas such as ethics, artificial intelligence, and complex financial solutions, clarifying that the growing adoption of AI is not meant to displace workers but rather to empower them through reskilling.
“The expectation isn’t for people to be replaced by AI, but it’s for people without AI skills or data skills to be replaced by people with data and AI skills. All of us have to come skilled or upscaled in these areas to make us relevant for this new revolution that we’re seeing.”
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Source: Comfort Sweety Hayford/ATLFMNEWS
