CAL Bank has opened a bespoke branch at the Airport City enclave in Accra to serve its teeming customers and bring the total branch network to 26.
The branch, with its living-room ambience and feel, has sofas, rugs and sharper colours which set it apart from the bank’s other branches in the country, and looks to draw in customers from the enclave and its surroundings.
Speaking at the branch opening, Branch Manager Helen Korleki Aggrey-Fynn stated that the new team is excited by the opening of this branch.
“It is brand-new, state-of-the-art and a never-been-seen-before branch.
We are grateful to management and there are a number of opportunities out there that we will be taking advantage of.
“With the ambience we have and the superior service that our staff are ready and willing to offer, we are sure that customers will come in; but CAL Bank is also noted for its corporate business and so we will be working big in that space,” she noted.
But she added that the bank will be moving strongly into the area of SMEs, and due to this CAL Bank has revamped a number of SME-related products to ensure it gets a larger chunk of the SME market.
“With products like CAL Pharma, Church, and School schemes the bank gives overdrafts up to GH¢300,000 without any securities. We want our customers to be comfortable to do business.
“We are sure that we will do well, and we are sure this branch will be the branch of the year just like my previous branch, Tema Main, where we were adjudged branch of the year in 2014.
I am very confident that with God on our side and all the strategies we have put in place in that branch we should replicate that same success and more,” she added.
Managing Director of the bank Frank Adu lauded the staff for showing resilience in helping the bank make gains during 2015 when other banks saw a decline in growth.
He urged staff of the new branch to hit the ground running and take it to new heights.
He explained that with this being the 26th branch, the bank is looking at 30 banks in total. Other branches lined up include Tamale in the Northern Region; Asiama in the Western Region and the University of Ghana, with either the Brong Ahafo or Volta regions vying for the 30th branch.
He noted that despite the economy still being a predominantly cash-based one, branch banking is not going to be that important, particularly with the new generation he described as the ‘tablet generation’.
“This generation doesn’t want to enter a banking hall; they want to do everything with their hand-held devices or mobile phones.
So the bank is better off developing a backbone that will deliver digital services as opposed to opening brick and mortar branches.
“That is why we have never been so huge on opening countless branches all over the place.
For the moment, 30 should be enough.
We just signed an agreement with IBM to deliver the technology, and also we are upgrading our banking software.”
The bank’s new head office project is scheduled for completion by end of this year, and Mr. Adu believes it will change the face of CAL Bank in the banking space.
Source: B&FT Online