In the past few years, COT (also known as Commission On Turnover) has served as an extremely lucrative source of income for many banks in Ghana. Customers are routinely charged about 0.15% at the end of each month, on the total amount of withdrawals from their current accounts. This is in addition to any ACH and Returned ACH fees they would have incurred on the same debits.

In other words, we are being charged for using our hard-earned money in our accounts. COT fees, in some instances are subject to the bank's discretion and negotiated based on the volume of transactions and the business history. For small businesses, these fees can easily add up to Ghs 1,500 per month; as has been my personal experience with Guaranty Trust Bank (GT) over the past few years.

Nigerian banks are especially notorious for this – GT, Zenith and UBA are a few examples. Interestingly enough, since 2016, the Central Bank of Nigeria had banned banks from levying this charge. Why then is it allowed in Ghana? What is the justification for these exorbitant fees in an era of digital banking?

The development of FinTech has transformed traditional banking through disruptive innovation and has made banking less manual. Customers now conduct activities like withdrawals, transfers, bill pay, setting up Standing Orders and general account maintenance in a digital way. Although for banks, it has meant huge investments in technology, it has also reduced their labour costs since fewer personnel are needed for these back-office banking activities. The cost savings from the digital banking revolution has been great for customers in many parts of the world. Unfortunately, this cannot be said for Ghanaian banking customers.

Despite the recent recapitalization of Ghana’s banking industry which was expected to induce credit growth to private enterprises, banks are generally denying SMEs the much-needed financing required to fund their operations, create employment and contribute towards accelerating economic growth.

Although the private sector accounts for the largest proportion of deposits (88%) that fund most of the banks’ lending, it only holds just over 50% of its credit as compared with the public sector. In summary, at a time when banks are lending less to the private sector, they are enjoying huge revenues through crippling fees which have become vital sources of profits.

Please SIGN and SHARE this petition if you feel COT levied by some banks in Ghana is a rip-off THAT MUST STOP.

LET’S NOT TAKE THIS LYING DOWN. CHANGE ONLY HAPPENS WHEN CONCERNED CUSTOMERS CARE ENOUGH TO ADVOCATE FOR IT.

THIS MUST STOP!!!