Ghana: Banking firms are embracing GIS technology worldwide to enhance their general banking operations. So it has become a critical tool for banks. It helps addresses banks’ longstanding challenge with poor identification and address systems to reduce their loan defaults, observed Samuel Larbi-Darko, Executive Director, Sambus Geospatial – a Ghana-based company. He was in conversation with Joy Business.
Similalry, Prince Kofi Amoabeng, Chief Executive of UT Bank, told to Joy Business that the technology couldn’t have come at any better time for banks. However, its benefits transcend the banking sector to include governance as a whole.
“The banking sector had challenges with non performing loans or bad debts which added to the cost of doing business and thereby high interest rates. The government is trying to address this with a number of initiatives like the Credit Referencing. The Credit Referencing Bureaus however depend on accurate information about the people and where they live” he said.
“Therefore, it is crucial to know where people live and how to make them responsible and accountable. And this is not just for the banking sector but also for better governance. If you want to govern the people, your role is to develop the people and to do that you need to have information about them – where they live, what they own and what they produce among others and that’s what the GIS is going to do,” Amoabeng explained.
Source: Joy Business
