Stanbic Bank Ghana, has launched its wealth investment management unit to provide personalised solutions and investment prospects to Ghana’s High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWI).
Mr. Benjamin Mensah, Head, Wealth and Investment Unit of Stanbic Bank, said the unit would provide clients with investment advice related to local opportunities.
He said Ghana’s middle class is growing and there was the need for a niche wealth offering proposition to meet the requirements of HNWIs whose specific wealth creation and preservation require a specialised suite of solStanbic Bank Ghana would leverage Standard Bank Group in-depth sector knowledge, expertise and established networks to link Ghanaian investors with opportunities across the continent.
Mr. Mensah said Ghana was recording high growth in the number of HNWI, adding that as of the year 2000 Ghana could only boast of about 500 HIWIs but the number has shot up to 2,700.
The most commonly quoted figure for membership in the high net worth club is $1 million in liquid financial assets.
“This shows that the potential for this category of HNWIs would grow further hence the need to establish a unit to take care of their needs,” he said.
He said the Bank was targeting about 10 per cent of the HNWI market, adding that, “it is not about the numbers but the quality of service that the Bank would provide to the clients that is very important.”
“In addition to locally based HNWIs, there is a significant group of individuals who make up the Ghanaian diaspora who are seeking out opportunities to contribute to growth at home as well as through tailored offshore solutions,” he said.
He said regular universal banking could not be used to address the needs of HNWI clients.
According to the 2016 Knight Frank Wealth Report, which was launched in Africa in partnership with Standard Bank Wealth and Investment, Ghana has experienced the fastest HNW growth rates in Africa over the past 14 years and will continue to grow as the Ultra High Net Worth increases by 85 per cent over the next ten years.
Mr. Mensah cited growth of the middle class, oil find, political stability as some of the driving forces behind the growth of HNWIs in Ghana.
Speaking at the launch of a new financial service proposition for Ghana’s High Net Worth Individuals, Alhassan Andani, Managing Director of Stanbic Bank Ghana, says “Ghana is set to benefit from growing economic opportunities fuelled by stable leadership, strong governance and economic opportunities from an increasingly diversified economy led by investments in infrastructure and real estate among others”.
To get the most out of these opportunities, Mr. Andani explained, “required the right level of specialised and personalised financial services support, as provided for by Stanbic Ghana’s new wealth and investment proposition”.
The Head of Africa and International for Standard Bank Wealth and Investment, Mr Deon de Klerk, said the new proposition involved working with clients and the families in meeting their investment goals and also to make the entire group available to them.
He said the high nets worth individuals are more concerned about not only the creation of wealth but also preservation of the wealth for future generations and also carrying out high impact philanthropy.
“Our clients are also concerned about succession and how their children will deal with the pressures of inherited wealth,” he added.
Source: GNA/NewsGhana.com.gh
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