The Managing Director of Barclays Bank (Ghana) Limited Benjamin Debrah has announced the bank's decision to start giving credit facilities to customers particularly those who fall under the Small and Medium Sector of the economy. He said management took a decision to suspend the approval of loan applications because of non performance of quite a number of them which resulted in the Bank declaring a huge sum of money as outstanding. "Customers' attitude to loan repayment had been very poor and that is why we took a decision to halt it, but I want to assure you that we have resolved to begin to give put loans to customers with flexible terms very soon" he assured customers. He was however grateful to the customers' continuous preparedness to do business with the Bank in spite of the Bank being hesitant to grant credit facilities to customer. He advised customers to do well to pay back their loans to sustain the business relationship the Bank has with its customers. The Managing Director made these known during a day's seminar organized by Barclays for Barclays Business Club held in Kumasi last Friday. The seminar was aimed at equipping members of the Club with the requisite business skills to grow their businesses. "The ultimate objective of the Club is to organise such seminars to enable members grow their businesses to become the likes of Unilever Ghana Limited, PZ. Cussons etc", he stressed. Mr. Debrah mentioned that Management attaches so much importance to the seminar being held in Kumasi. He said SMEs are crucial to the growth of every country's economy. Some customers during the seminar raised significant concerns particularly on loans and interest rates as well as some operational activities of the Bank which are not customer friendly. A customer was worried about the very high interest rates charged on loans the Bank grants customers and was of the view that was the main reason customers are unable to pay back loans that are granted them by the bank. In his response, the Managing Director said the commitment to pay back loans is very crucial to interest rates charged on loans. "If defaulting rate becomes too high, it affects the interest rate", he said. The Managing Director of Prof. Quarm Publications Limited, publishers of Science text books in Kumasi, Joseph Albert Quarm who is a customer of the Bank expressed his dissatisfaction about the attitude of some personnel of the Bank particularly at the head office in Accra and their lukewarm attitude to serving customers at the branches outside Accra. Top most on topics presented at the seminar was an upcoming trip to China by members of the Club. The purpose of this international business trip will afford members of the Club to explore and also get the opportunity to have business links with international partners. Activities of the Club will among other things look at how Barclays all over Ghana will link up with business partners. Benefits of the trip would include, sourcing product and supplier information, see, test, compare and evaluate the latest trends and innovation as well as finding new business markets. Other benefits are networking and development of business contacts, making purchasing decisions, acquisition of technical information and business specific terms and conditions. Business men eligible to part of the international trip will be building merchants and traders, entrepreneurs, key decision makers and procurement mangers. Source: B&FT