The Ghana Banking Awards has adjudged Zenith Bank and GCB Bank as the Cashless Promotion Bank of the year and the e-zwich Bank of the year respectively. The two banks were recognized for their efforts at driving cashless and e-zwich services during the prestigious banking awards held on Saturday 15th July in Accra.
The awards, which is in its 16th year, was instituted by Corporate Initiative Ghana, constituted by corporate bodies in Ghana. It is intended to recognize performing banks in different categories and engender competition among them.
A few years ago, a category to reward banks that promote e-zwich was introduced and another to recognize banks driving the cashless agenda was added a year after.
The two award categories promoted by the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems Ltd (GhIPSS) was in line with the general policy to promote non-cash forms of payment in Ghana.
Competition for both awards was keenly contested, with Standard Chartered Bank and Royal Bank being adjudged the first and second runners-up in the category of cashless bank promotion award while Agriculture Development Bank (adb) and Access Bank were the first and second runners up for the e-zwich Bank of the year category.
The Chief Executive Officer of GhIPSS Archie Hesse commended the winners of the various categories and urged financial institutions to continue to work with GhIPSS to drive non-cash forms of payments.
He explained that the banks are in a very advantageous position in the cashless agenda, as they have both merchants and individuals as customers. He said banks can work with their customers who are merchants to enable them to offer electronic payment channels, as well as use incentives to encourage consumers to patronise the electronic payments.
Mr. Hesse also urged government to come out with policies that will reward financial institutions, that are promoting non-cash forms of payments. He said some progress was being made and added that with a concerted effort by all stakeholders, Ghana could achieve the cashlite agenda.
Source: GNA