Stanchart hails recent wave of economic growth across Africa
Standard Chartered Bank has hailed the recent waves of economic growth across Africa as much more sustainable because it is driven by consumer spending and not commodity price booms. The Regional Head of Consumer Banking, Middle East, Pakistan & Africa, Mr Raheel Ahmed, told a section of the media in Accra that since the bank had a long-term focus for Ghana and the rest of Africa, it would contribute to deepening the economic opportunities and growth in the African economies, while taking advantage to grow its consumer banking unit.
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“Africa is booming and growing faster in a way that is different from what the continent experienced in the last decade; the previous growth was driven by commodity price boom, but the current growth is underpinned by domestic private consumer spending, a much sustaining type of growth,” he said on Wednesday.
Ghana leads countries that have seen phenomenal economic growth in recent years, growing at over 14 per cent last year. Other economies such as Ethiopia, Botswana and Nigeria have also seen impressive growths.
“While we see opportunities to grow our consumer banking with this kind of development, we also help the consumer to improve their lives through the products, services and financial solutions that we provide to meet their needs,” Mr Ahmed pointed out when he addressed a section of the media in Accra.
In addition, he said, the bank would leverage its huge presence in markets such as Asia, the Far East and the Middle East, where Africa trade volumes had shifted to the rest of the world is shifting towards India, China, Dubai and so on. Africa’s trade has shifted from doing business with America and European and now to the East.
“We are the largest foreign bank in India, one of the largest banks in the Middle East and we have the both the opportunity and responsibility to help our customers to do cross border business and this will be a cornerstone of our strategy going forward,” Mr Ahmed said.
Already, Standard Chartered has the China Africa Network, new premium banking service available to Chinese-owned businesses in Ghana.
The innovative and unique proposition creates opportunities for business executives to maintain international accounts in China or elsewhere, from the comfort of Ghana.
The bank is also pursuing an enhanced consumer banking concept that will focus more on dealing with unique needs of their customers as opposed to churning out products for every segment of their clientele.
Although the bank would continue to provide its traditional services, it wants to first understand the needs of the customer so as to proffer unique solutions for them.
The new focus means redesigning some of its branch offices with interior arrangements, while increasing its electronic banking footprints to offer more branchless banking and operational solutions to its customers.
“It’s no more a matter of customers bringing their deposits or taking a consumer loan. It’s about what stage of life you are you in; do you want to pay for your children’s education or insurance, extra money to save, do you need a company solution etc,” Mr Ahmed said.
He said the focus of the bank was to be the best in customer experience, delighting them with their services, adding that it would be achieved with both branch network and also with digital solutions which the bank had invested in heavily.
In Ghana, the new service proposition has seen the opening of state-of-the-art branches which service as one-stop shops for meeting the customer’s needs, with arrangements in the banking halls changed to reflect the model applied in all leading markets such as Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai.
The beautifully designed interior of Standard Chartered Bank’s retail branches welcomes the customer to explore the services at the bank. Tellers have surprisingly been pushed much inside, while personnel have been positioned to be the first to welcome guests and usher them to the officers and desks appropriate for their visit.
The personal financial consultants have also been positioned on the sides of the banking hall in cubicles to make for privacy. Stanchart is hoping to retrofit six other branches to bring them to that standard and thereafter other branches would follow with the same concept.
Mr Ahmed said the bank would continue to pursue distribution models and also add more digital footprint to save capacity.
Going forward, the bank would customise each branch to respond to the needs of the area in which it is located. In areas where businesses started and closed late, the bank would adjust its time to suit them and in areas where people started the day early, the bank’s opening hours would change to reflect that.
Story: Samuel Doe Ablordeppey