Rainbow Radio

“Pay days”, which should be happy times for workers in the Wa Municipality, rather turn to be the worst times for many of them.

Many workers queue at some financial institutions from morning to evening without being able to access their scanty salaries, to enable them take care of their families and carry out other social and economic responsibilities.

The spectacle at the Ghana Commercial Bank premises in Wa for instance, is just like that of a market place, jammed with motorcycles, aside long queues of workers, who struggle to enter the banking hall to transact business.

The main road from the Wa Police Station to the Central Market is always hijacked by the workers, obstructing the movement of vehicles and  pedestrians.

Workers form Wa and its environs form queues as early as 0500 hours before banking commences at 0830 hours.

On hears pandemonium of quavering voices and observe confusion that at times results in fighting among the workers as others attempt to jump the queue.

At times due to fatigue and hunger, the elderly in the queue collapse and area  rushed to the hospital for medical attention. The lucky ones are revived when they are given food, water or soft drinks.

After fruitless bustle and hustle many of the workers go home disappointed, and some borrow money to enable them to travel to their destinations.

Really, “Pay Days” in Wa are also holidays for recalcitrant workers, who made their way to funerals, visit pito and beer bars   to enjoy themselves.

Productivity is low since some of the workers take advantage of the situation and go to their farms, undertake business, and others go home putting the blame on the bank workers for "delaying the payment of their salaries" to avoid queries.

The struggle for salaries among workers in the Wa Municipality is not limited to the Ghana Commercial Bank as the the story is the same about the Agricultural Development Bank.

Productivity is low during this period as workers desert their work and to go to the banks to access their salaries.  

The delay in banking activities can  be attributed to increase in the number of clients following the establishment of the University for Development Studies and the Wa Polytechnic, and the inability of the banks to expand or opening new branches in the Municipality.

New banks such as the Stannic Bank, the Barclays Bank and the National Investment Bank also operating in the Municipality, are yet to develop strategies to encourage workers to sway from the Ghana Commercial Bank and Agricultural Development Banks to join them, to help reduce the congestion at  the two banks..