Bank of Ghana to grant miners’ union operational licence to start savings and loan firm
Ghana Mine Workers Union (GMWU)’s savings and loan company, Golden Pride, is expected to be operational by January 2013, the General Secretary, Mr Prince William Ankrah of the Union announced on Thursday.
Golden Pride Savings and Loans Limited wholly owned by the Union at present, had acquired a provisional licence to commence business and is waiting on the BOG to issue the operational licence, which Mr Ankrah believes will be issued soon to enable it to take off smoothly.
Speaking at the 1st annual general meeting of the company in Accra, which by law it should happened in the first 18th months of incorporation, Mr Ankrah, who also happened to be the Board Chairman of Golden Pride, said the exigencies of the time required trades unionism to break new frontiers to make them more productive and dynamic.
“We have to fully comply with the BOG requirement and at the moment we have been able to raise the stated capital of GH¢7 million. We are making available to the BOG all the manuals (documentation) requested to enable us operate. We have up to March next year to get the business going, but we want to start ahead of time,” Mr Ankrah said.
“We want to move smoothly and transparency will prevail in all the affairs of the company. Our business is already incorporated and we are not going to enter the financial industry with a mediocre mind. We want to thread cautious and we will not rush into any shareholding structure. We are ready for it and and now it is purely GMWU property,” he told workers of the union at the meeting.
He said as the business progresses the Union’s various branches could increase their holdings from time to time.
“In the next five years, Golden Pride Savings and Loans Limited will move into universal banking. We are starting operation in Obuasi, in the Ashanti Region, but we will spread to Accra and in all the mining towns like Tarkwa and Dunkwa,” Mr Ankrah stated.
He assured the workers, who are also attending Union’s National Executive Council Meeting that the right calibre of people had been recruited to serve on the board and they would formulate the right policies for the growth of Golden Pride.
He said the financial market in Ghana is huge and though currently Nigerian investors had dominated the scene, the board was optimistic that Golden Pride would find its rightful place to meet the needs of Ghanaians in a big and much rewarding way.
The GMWU currently has about 18,500 members, is a democratic and independent trade union organization affiliated locally to the Ghana Trades Union Congress of Ghana and the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mines and General Workers’ Union (ICEM) based in Brussels, Belgium.
It was founded on June 7, 1944 at Abosso near Tarkwa and it was known at the time as the Gold Coast Mines Employees Union.
Source: GNA