Elsie Addo Awadzi (2nd right) in a photograph with some officers of the
Accra Regional Police Headquarters and members of her delegation
THE BANK of Ghana (BoG) on Wednesday, held a day’s sensitization and training programme for personnel of the Ghana Police Service (GPS) on banking services as well as consumer rights and responsibilities.
The exercise, held at the Accra Regional Headquarters of the GPS, was aimed at making personnel of the police service understand their rights as customers of financial institutions; and consumers of financial services.
The exercise formed part of a bigger programme being carried out by the BoG to educate and sensitize key stakeholder groups throughout the country as to their own rights and responsibilities as consumers of financial services.
Speaking to journalists, secound Deputy Governor of BoG, Elsie Addo Awadzi, noted that the exercise was to engage the GPS as key strategic partners set out to ensure integrity in the financial system of the country.
“It is now time to re-engage them, particularly after the banking cleanup, to ensure that we are on the same page with them; and that we continue to conduct surveillance over the financial institutions to weed out unlawful and unethical behavior and ensure the GPS understands our expectations, particularly in the area of unlicensed financial service operations,” she iterated.
That, she said, would enable the GPS report and help take the necessary actions to stop activities of unregulated financial institutions offering financial services to the public such as deposit-taking and the granting of loans.
“We’ve seen too many fingers burnt in the recent past in Ghana. We’ve seen too many people lose money; and it is our definite hope that it doesn’t happen anymore,” she stressed, adding, the BoG was doing all it could to engage key stakeholders like the GPS to ensure that “we are able to mobilize ourselves to enforce the laws strictly, sooner than later.”
The training programme featured lectures on various aspects of the financial system, some of which included the importance of being financially literate and the role of BoG in the financial system.
Participants were also given lessons on the various financial regulatory bodies in the country, the institutions under these and the various roles they play.
By Nii Adjei Mensahfio