Ghana Commercial Bank Limited (GCB) has marked its 60th birthday on Monday, May 20, 2013, with pomp and pageantry.
The 60th birthday celebration took the form of flag-hoisting, photo exhibition and cutting of an anniversary cake at the forecourt of the Head Office of the Bank.
The flag-hoisting ceremony was also held at all the Bank's158 networked branches and 15 agencies across the length and breadth of Ghana.
The ceremony in Accra at the Head Office was attended by high profile personalities including Ministers of State, chiefs, chief executives, board members, shareholders and customers across industries and academia.
Prominent among them were Mr Fiifi Kwetey, Minister of Finance at the Presidency, Dr Fritz Gockel, Board Chairman of GCB and Senior lecturer at the Economics Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, the Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Dr H. A. Kofi Wampah, Managing Director of GCB, Mr Simon Dornoo, the Chief Executive of the Centre for Policy Analysis, Dr Joe Abbey, former Managing Director of GCB, Mr Lawrence N. Adu-Mante, the James Town Mantse Nii Kojo Ababio and Mr S. Q. Duncan, a pioneer staff of the Bank.
Other dignitaries were Dr Kofi Mbiah, Chief Executive Officer of the Ghana Shippers Authority, Managing Director of Standard Chartered Bank Ghana, Mr J. Kweku Bedu-Addo, the Chief of Defence Staff, Vice Admiral Matthew Quashie, Managing Director of the First African Group of Companies, Mrs Gifty Affenyi-Dadzie, Chairperson of the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE), Ms Charlotte Osei, Registrar of the Ghana School of Law, Nana Osei-Bonsu, Mr Sas George, an investor, Heads of Divisions/Departments and others.
The forecourt of the GCB Head Office was awash with the national, GCB Corporate and the 60th anniversary colours with displays and re-enactment of the setting of the Bank which has become a financial giant in Ghana.
Mrs Adelaide Benneh, Board member of GCB together with Nii Kojo Ababio released 60 GCB 60th anniversary branded balloons into the atmosphere.
GCB was established in 1953, with 27 employees, as the Bank of the Gold Coast with initial focus on serving Ghanaian traders, farmers, and business people, who could not obtain financing from the expatriate banks. In 1957, when Ghana attained Independence, the bank rebranded to Ghana Commercial Bank, to concentrate on commercial banking, since Bank of Ghana had been created to function as the central bank and banking regulator.
In the beginning, the Bank was wholly owned by the Government of Ghana. However, in 1996, the ownership in the Bank was divested. Today, government shareholding stands at 51.17%. Subsequently, the Bank was listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. Today, GCB serves the banking needs of a large number of corporations, parastatals, small and medium enterprises as well as individuals. As of July 2012, the Bank had in its employ 2,315 staff in branches distributed in all 10 regions of the nation.