Containing Coronavirus: Banks in Ghana reduce branches to avoid losses

This is coming after the Bank of Ghana (BoG) directed banks to keep skeletal staff to work during the 14-day partial lockdown announced by President Akufo-Addo to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

In complying with this directive, most banks have decided to reduce drastically the number of branches that will run during this period.

This is because it is expensive running a bank branch when cash flow is nothing to write home about.

Banks such as Stanbic, Consolidated Bank Ghana, GT Bank, Absa, Fidelity, among others, have all reduced the number of branches to help them manage operation costs that will come from low transactions in these times.

Most of the banks have sent messages to their customers and also posted on their social media pages to inform their clients of this development.

Stanbic Bank, for example, sent a message to customers saying: “Dear Valued Customer, to help contain COVID-19, some of our branches will be closed. Airport City, North Industrial Area, Accra Main, Tema Industrial, and Asokwa branches will operate during the lockdown.”

GT Bank’s message to customers also said “Dear Customer, please note that branch operations will be temporarily reduced from 30 March. Our digital platforms are available during this period. Stay safe.”

Experts have said that the 14-day lockdown will impact negatively businesses and incomes of the banks as far as trade, credit, and deposits are concerned.

This has led to most of the banks repositioning their businesses to reduce the losses that will be experienced during this 14-day partial lockdown.