Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Ghana Association of Bankers (GAB), John Awuah, has said banks in the country are working towards phasing out soft body vehicles for armoured bullion vans in the carting of cash.
According to Mr Awuah, this is per the directive of the Bank of Ghana (BoG) issued in 2019.
“We were and are still working towards the plan to have all soft body pickups which have been converted into bullion vans phased out by 2023 per the BoG’s directive. But of course we have been overtaken by events and now we have to roll back our plans and see how we can resolve the issue in the interim and improve security around cash operations in the country,” he stated in an interview monitored by norvanreports.
Touching on why the regulator had handed out a 4 year deadline for banks to comply with the directive, Mr Awuah explained that, this is was due to the operational mechanisms that had to come along with the usage of armoured bullion vans for carting of cash in the country.
“It’s not sufficient to just bring in bullion vans because it has to come along with all of its operational mechanisms, a servicing facility and others, So it’s not by accident that the regulator agreed with the industry that we should have a road map to the end of 2023 where we would have all the infrastructure set up,” he noted.
Speaking further in the interview, Mr Awuah noted that the banking industry on the back of recent attacks on bullion vans which have unfortunately led to the death of some police officers, have deepened engagement with the Ghana Police Service (GPS).
“We are having deep engagement processes with the Ghana Police Service because they are our number one stakeholder in the business of cash operations. Banks have taken stock of the armoured bullion vans in the system as well as the soft body vans, so behind the scenes there is significant amount of work ongoing between banks, the BoG and the Ghana Police Service,” he added.
Background
On June 14, 2021, a police officer, Emmanuel Osei and a hawker, Afua Badu, were attacked by a group of armed robbers at Adedenkpo, a suburb of Jamestown.
The robbers were said to have trailed a bullion van in a taxi and on a motorbike and upon arrival at a less crowded location, fired indiscriminately, killing them instantly.
According to an eyewitness, the police officer, Emmanuel Osei was providing security for the van while the young lady, Afua Badu, was a bystander who witnessed the incident.
The driver of the van also sustained severe injuries.
