Banks relieved after smooth rollover into new millennium 

Accra (Greater Accra) 4 Jan. 2000

Banks in the country seem to be taking a breather after their 24-hour Y2K alert, as they eased into year 2000 without any problems.

So far, none of them has complained or experienced any malfunctioning as was feared on the advent of the new millennium.

A tour of the major banks in the metropolis on Monday, the first working day of the year, showed that there was brisk activity with customers doing business as usual.

The banks visited were Standard Chartered Bank (SCB), Ghana Commercial Bank (GCB), Barclays Bank Ghana, SSB Bank (SSB), National Investment Bank (NIB) and Agricultural Development Bank (ADB).

They were unanimous that the Y2K problem was genuine and that the money and effort put into adjusting systems countrywide was worth the effort.

Mr Ben Awuah-Mensah, Head of Operations IT at SCB, said, "all our systems were tested two years ago right into the first three months of 1999 and throughout the past year.

"We also tested the readiness of our systems for January 2000, the leap year problems, half year and year end. We also first tested for the first 16 days of this year sometime between September and November."

He said the bank spent 180 million pounds sterling to get all its branches in the world compliant.

Mr Awuah-Mensah said there was simulation of an entire business transaction long before 3 January, after a dummy roll over.

"After this, when the actual roll-over took effect, we tested our systems again and everything has been working perfectly ever since."

Mr Vishnu Mohan, Managing Director SCB, Ghana, said Africa has proved a point that it can be counted when issues of hi-tech come up.

"The fact that we were able to move smoothly into this new century with a four digit date without any hitch, proves that Africa is capable of meeting all challenges given the opportunity that all others have."

Mr Giridhar S. Varadachari, the Bank's Area Head of Business Technology for West Africa, said: "so far we are moving smoothly and all is fine."

He added: "The Y2K problems were real and genuine and I do not think that it was a way by which anyone sought to cause any panic or fear in the IT industry."

Mr V. Ate Ofosu-Amaah, Head, Control Systems GCB, looking relieved, said all their systems were in order. He added that a number of branches have been contacted and things are "just normal."

He said the bank replaced 400 computers upgraded for Y2K compliance, and did general capital changes at about 500,000 dollars.

"If we had not done this it is possible that we could have had some problems. I do not think someone cooked this up."

GCB has 136 branches with 61 of them computerised, 52 on stand-alone status and nine linked.

Mr Ofosu-Amaah said they are in the process of putting the 52 on a Wide Area Network and said they hope to have about 25 linked by April 30.

Ms Harriet Phillips, Head of IT at Barclays, said it is business as usual after they made a clean move into the year.

"So far, so good. Our banking halls are working perfectly and we are OK."

She said there has not been any peculiar problem with their systems and that they do not expect any such problem.

"What we are going to be doing now is to do confidence testing."

Barclays said with the fears of Y2K over, they are now going to confront the problems of a leap year.

"Everyone is happy now because it has been a long way down here. We've been at this in the last two years."

She also refuted the idea that the fears expressed in the IT world was a hoax.

"It was not a hoax. It is due to the fact that it had a huge media hype, which put us on our toes. It is also because we put in so much that some are thinking it was a hoax."

Mrs Emelia Nortey, IT Chief of SSB, said: "we landed in 2000 smoothly. "We learnt a lot from our suppliers on the Internet and this really cut down our costs."

SSB, which has 38 branches in the country with eight of them on the micro-banker, software being used by the bank, spent 500,000 dollars to upgrade its system.

Meanwhile the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE) on Monday assured investors that their money is safe since their equipment is working perfectly.

A statement from the Exchange said "the electronic systems and applications have been tested and are Y2K compliant."

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