New information gathered from Ecobank Ghana in relation to a story we published on 2nd March 2015 with the above headline, shows that our headline was inaccurate and did not paint the correct picture of the situation.
Our story was based on data from the Bank of Ghana (BOG) website which showed that Ecobank Ghana’s service charge of a flat fee of GHS10 per month was the highest in that category.
While this is a fact as per the data available on the BOG Website the report did not take full account of the overall situation regarding current account service charges in Ghana.
The new information made available to us from Ecobank Ghana shows that there are two types of account maintenance/service charges, namely:
- A flat monthly fee called wither Account Maintenance Fee/service charge
- A flexible monthly charge called Commission on turnover
In view of the fact that Commission on turnover (COT) is based on transaction volumes on the account, the amount charged often tend to be higher than the fixed charge amount , which is flat and not based on turnover.
Therefore ignoring the differences between the Account Maintenance/Service Charge and Commission on Turnover in our report led to an erroneous conclusion that Ecobank’s GHC 10 monthly maintenance fee is the most expensive in the industry.
Applying a more comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the data, would lead to a different conclusion than our story suggested.
We therefore by this publication seek to correct the wrong impression that Ecobank Gh is the most expensive bank in Ghana to run a current account with and note that using the more expanded measure, customers would have to decide on which bank is more expensive based on whether they are high volume users of their accounts, in which case the COT is the more relevant measure or whether as infrequent users of their account, a flat amount of GHC 10 per month is the most expensive.
We hereby unreservedly apologize to Ecobank Gh for the undue damage caused their reputation by the story and apologize to our readers for the misinformation.
By: citifmonline.com/Ghana