Access Bank Plc, including its Ghana subsidiary, Access Bank Ghana Ltd, is rebranding to reposition the bank with increased focus on small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).
The bank has traditionally identified itself with corporate clientele and institutional banking and is seen as a big ticket bank.
However, the Managing Director (MD) of the bank, Mr Dolapo Ogundimu, told the financial press in Accra yeterday that the rebranding, which had been going on for some time, would see the Access Ghana relaunch a new identity in January next year, with expanded operations and dedicated services to the small and medium scale enterprises sub-sector.
He explained that since the SME sector was not a market it had focused on in the past, the rebranding would contribute to making its services accepted in that segment of the market.
Why SMEs
“We want to concentrate more on the SME and the retail banking sector. We think there is a lot of potential there for business sustainability. The SMEs are the backbone of any economy and the earlier you identify with that market the better for you,” the managing director told newsmen.
The discussions focused on the bank’s strategies in the past years which enabled it to win the Bank of the Year Award, the third time Mr Ogundimu had led a bank to win such a laurel. The bank also discussed its rebranding, as well as its new focus and outlook.
“At every stage in a product’s life, there has to be that rejuvenation and I think this is the rejuvenation for us. We are moving into another phase. After the integration with Intercontinental Bank, it is now a bigger brand, with new management, focus and strategy which ends in 2018. Generally, we are stepping up our game,” he stated.
The Access Bank MD said the new focus would see the bank change from being a conservative bank with services limited to corporate clients in the Ghanaian market, saying, “Now we are coming down lower, to the business banking and personal banking, essentially SME banking.”
In August this year, Access Bank fully completed its integration with former Intercontinental Bank whose assets it took over in 2011, making the bank one of the largest in the country.
In addition, Access Bank also wants to remain relevant in the global changing environment which was affecting the local economy, requiring an approach Mr Ogundimu said should be “friendlier and easy to identify with” rather than that conservative outlook it had.
The bank wants to promote financial inclusion in the country so as to attract more customers and deposits with which it can extend more credit to the fragmented SME sector and support it to grow.
And to do that, the managing director said “We are improving our channels to be able to reach as many of them as possible and we are also coming out with new products, including electronic ones, to meet their needs.”
The bank is also training its staff to have what it calls “an SME mindset” to enable the staff to relate well with the sector and understand their needs. “This is because we can’t look at SMEs the way we look at corporate clients.”
Access Bank also intends to roll out segmented banking services such as one that supports women engaged in SMEs to empower them financially.