The Chief Executive of the Ghana Association of Banks, John Awuah, has revealed that online banking and other services offered by commercial banks have been fully restored.

According to him, this was done due to the resilience structures built.

He noted that as banks, “we have always built in three resilience structures for developments like these” and this helped us to quickly recover to offer services.

He added that “all the banks have their primary sites, secondary, and other channels that they can fall on. And don’t forget, these are regulatory requirements."

The Chief Executive of the Ghana Association of Banks disclosed this on PM EXPRESS BUSINESS EDITION with host George Wiafe on March 21, 2024.

Some of the banks have “your normal connectivity with fiber, some have radio as secondary redundancy line and in some cases satellite”, he mentioned.

“Today I have done two separate transactions through the various banking platforms”, Mr. Awuah continued.   

Restoring confidence in online banking and other transactions

There have been concerns that the development could affect confidence in online banking and virtual products.

But Mr. Awuah disagrees, saying, “Looking at the time that we were able to restore full service, there is no way this will push people from these services and product offerings”.

Mr. Awuah noted, “Based on the systems that we have built; we also moved to assure customers that all their funds are safe and there is no need to be worried.

“At the bank level, we can assure everyone that everything is safe”, the CEO of the Ghana Association of Banks said.

But has the banking system built the necessary system to withstand future? Mr. Awuah insisted that should not be seen as a problem for now and going forward.

He believes a lot more needs to be done to build more “backup” to minimise the expected shocks.

This is because several of the commercial banks had their data centers hoisted locally, and the recent internet disruptions didn’t impact their operations much.