The Bank of Ghana (BoG) has held a day’s forum to sensitize officers of the Immigration Service in the Ashanti region on financial literacy and responsibilities.
The event comes under heels of numerous complaints emanating from the security agencies, especially when it comes to Ponzi schemes fad within Ghana, a development the BoG reveals that per their statistics, security agencies are the most hit.
As such, the Central bank, in the last two years has been organizing sensitization programmes to help the officers of security agencies understand and appreciate basic financial principles.
The event which was held in Kumasi for immigration officers, who numbered about thirty (30), were taken through topics such as Knowing Your Rights and Responsibilities as Financial Consumer, Customer Complaints Resolution Procedures, among others.
In presentation, Godfred Cudjoe, the Head of Credit Reporting Unit at the Central Bank, revealed that the BoG has abolished some charges by the financial institutions in an attempt to sanitize the market.
“We have abolished quite a number of practices and fees that the banks were charging or undertaking within the banking sector. For example, it is not allowed for a bank to charge what we call maintenance fees on saving account.”
According to him, it is very critical for officers to look out for licensed financial institution, urging them to do a background check about a financial institution before they deal with them.
Mr Cudjoe further told the participants “You should see their license in display; if you have any doubt, you can reach out to Bank of Ghana’s website and you would be able to see whether the institution is licensed.”
On loan acquisition from banks, he highlighted that customer have to access their needs and know the various charges and interests rate on the loan.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the programme, the Ashanti Regional Immigration Accountant, C/Supt Joshua Mensah Ayettey , told the media, they were going to share what they have learnt with their peers.
“We are going to change our perception about how we go about our dealings with the financial institutions now that we have been equipped with enough information”, he said.
He confirmed that there had been reports where some of their colleagues had fallen victim to some Ponzi schemes but they do not come to report.
Mr Mensah Aryeetey expressed his appreciation to the Bank of Ghana for taking steps to ensure that the security personnel get well informed in the chosen topics.
He further gave the assurance that they would share information with their colleagues who for a genuine reason could not get the opportunity to be part of the education.
