GAW Western Region

The Western branch of the Ghana Association of Writers promotes a reading culture among the populace, especially, the youth.

It collaborates with the Ghana Education Service, the Ghana Library Board, the Media to roll our activities.,

12/10/2024

My Saga with Absa Bank
It is International Customer Service Week, so businesses are splashing customers with thank you messages. Some poignant questions arise:
• Is it ethical to shortchange customers, humiliate them with appalling services, then thank them during International Customer Service Week?
• Should businesses not target customer satisfaction through excellent services?
• Is it not sheer dubiousness to thank customers who are disdained through shoddy services?
Such questions plague my mind during customer service when my inbox become inundated with thank you messages from businesses I deal with, businesses that cheat and disrespect me. Do I need thanks or value for money? This year, I focus on some businesses. i begin with Absa bank, an institution I have saved with for over two decades. The thank you message below came on October 10, 2024.
Dear [Display_Name],
Happy International Customer Service Week!
We deeply appreciate your trust and loyalty.
Delighting you with exceptional service is our top priority,
and we are grateful to be part of your journey.
Thank you for choosing us.
YOUR STORY MATTERS. [emphasis mine]
Absa
In 2022, when the Government directive came that the Ghana card would be used for all transactions in the country, banks requested their clients to update their records with the Ghana card. I walked to the Absa Branch at Harper Road in Adum Kumasi for the update. The officer who attended to me took my card and scanned it, verified existing information to complete the update, or so I thought.
Sometime in 2023, I visited a branch in Sunyani for a transaction. I was told that they could not verify my identity. I got confused. The operations manager explained that since I had opened the account with a different card, the bank could not reconcile my identity information. He added that many customers fell into that category. He advised me to sort it out with my mother branch.
The manager got upset when I asked him whether the bank had been fair to customers by its silence. It had been over a year since the upgrade had occurred. There has been a major problem, but the bank had failed to inform customers. When such customers need services, they face obstructions, as happened in my case. The manager did not like my criticism.
It is quite simple: I opened the account with my voter’s identity card which had my formal name: Dinah Serwaa Amankwah. I used my passport, which had Ama included in my name, for the Ghana card. Pictures indicated the same face; however, the bank interpreted it as “change of name.”
As I had done with some institutions to effect the upgrade, I explained the circumstances in a letter and authorized the bank to effect the upgrade.
On September 4, 2023, I presented the letter to the Harper Road branch manager. She would not touch it. She directed me to swear an affidavit and have it gazetted that I have changed my name before the bank can upgrade. My explanation that there had been no change of name fell on deaf ears.
Ironically, the account -- all other formal transactions -- remains in my formal name. That is probably the reason other institutions did not raise any issue with my day name. If the manager had read my letter, she might have learnt from others’ approach and probably advised her management.
I was saddened and repulsed at her attitude. It alarmed me that such a poor people’s person was managing a branch. The thank you message above is completely useless to me!
By keeping many customers in the dark about their identity records, Absa bank is actually slapping the latter with its thank you message! In my numbness, I refer to Absa’s motto, “Your story matters,” and ask: Whose story?

02/03/2020

It's March, read a Ghana book month. Join GAW! On the West-Coast, GAW-Western Region is collaborating with the Western Regional Library to organize a reading series at both branches in Takoradi and Sekondi. We feature schools. Heads, teachers or patrons of reading/drama clubs can call and arrange a slot for their schools. Authors can stop by to read to library patrons.
Let us support Ghanaian authors by reading their works.
Read a book by a Ghanaian author in March!

18/02/2020

GAW is collaborating with the GES to celebrate indigenous languages on Friday, February 21, 2020, under the theme, "Language beyond Borders". We will converse in the various Ghanaian languages through drums, prose,poetry and drama and music. Come and be reminded of the richness of our languages. Join us at the Star of the Sea Cathedral, at 11am!