The Ghana Association of Savings and Loans Companies (GHASALC) will be holding its 6th Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the Holiday Inn, Accra on Thursday, October 20.
Under the theme ‘Digital Financing: The New Dawn in Banking Towards Unlimited Opportunities for S&Ls’, the Meeting will explore ways of taking advantage of technology to boost growth of savings and loans companies.
In 2015, the Association’s AGM, which was themed: ‘Inclusive Financing: A tool to strengthening the Savings and Loans Sector in Ghana’ informed the Ghanaian public of its agenda in the financial sector and the extent to which it is on course to championing an objective to deepen financial inclusion in Ghana.
With savings and loans companies realising the need for deploying state of the art technology, the Association is now pursuing an agenda to get all members to embrace and fully utilise technology to deliver unmatched convenience to customers.
“It is in the wake of technology that GHASALC has come to believe that digital financing is indeed here to drive financial inclusion to a whole new level. Savings and Loans companies therefore do not want to be exempted from this new technology – hence our theme for this year,” a statement from the Association said.
It added that it is also in this regard that GHASALC is more than willing to seek and to create that platform of opportunities to collaborate with institutions or stakeholders who are ready to take that path with the sector so ensure their contribution to the country’s financial inclusion agenda.
GHASALC is an association of savings and loans companies in Ghana and its members are registered under the Company’s Act and are fully licensed by Bank of Ghana before they open to the public.
With a vision to elevate the businesses of savings and loans companies in Ghana to a level where it is considered the best among financial intermediaries in Africa, these companies are regulated under the Banking Act 2004 (ACT 673) where they belong to the Tier 1 category of the regulation.
Before the Association was registered savings and loans companies were part of the umbrella association, Ghana Microfinance Institutions Network (GHAMFIN).
But members later saw the need to form their own association in order to satisfy their quest to address specific common issues pertinent to their uniquely identified sector.
Members believed that those concerns could only become a reality if all savings and loans companies come together: a different group with a stronger and louder mouth piece as they dialogue with stakeholders in the financial sector in Ghana.
This led to the Association’s registration with the Registrar General in September of 2008 when it was issued a certificate to commence business as a company limited by guarantee.
Its mission is to build a solid platform for the enhancement of microfinance practice in savings and loans companies so as to ensure the sustainability and growth of those companies, and their customers for the ultimate development of national economy.
Whiles it pursues these vision and mission, it is guided by transparency, accountability, professionalism, integrity, social responsibility, equality, and honesty as its core values.
Source: 3news.com|Ghana