It has become critical for commercial banks to adopt Geographic Information Systems, GIS technology because it is fast becoming a global tool to boost the efficiency of general banking operations. That’s coming from Sambus Geospatial, the indigenous company providing banks with the technology which serves as a credit-risk management tool. The technology addresses banks’ longstanding challenge with poor identification and address systems to reduce their loan defaults. Executive Director, Samuel Larbi-Darko tells JOY BUSINESS, it holds significant prospects for improving general banking operations. “Like in terms of locating a bank branch or ATM, what is the information available for an informed decision. So if you have all this information it gives enables the bank make an good and profitable decisions” he said. “Location is gradually becoming more like a global commodity just as Microsoft started and Microsoft Word software has now become a common platform.In the same vein, GIS is also going to become a common platform for people because we can see that people visist Google maps to see where their houses are. Except that Google maps do not give you the opportunity to interact with maps to create models and scenarios as opposed to GIS”he added. According to the Chief Executive of UT Bank, Prince Kofi Amoabeng the technology couldn’t have come at any better time for banks but its benefits transcends the banking sector to include governance as a whole. “The banking sector has had challenges with Non Performing Loans or bad debts which adds to the cost of doing business and thereby high interest rates. And the government is trying to address it with a number of initiatives like the Credit Referencing. The Credit Referencing Bureaus however depend on accurate information about the people and where they live” he said. “It is crucial to know where people live and how to make them responsible and accountable. And this is not just for the banking sector but the beginning of governance. If you want to govern the people, your role is to develop the people and to do that you need to have information about them – where they live, what they own and what they produce among others and that’s what the GIS is going to do” Mr. Amoabeng explained.