The robbery incident which occurred at the Madina branch of Ecobank last Monday should be a wake up call to the government and all the security agencies about the need to overhaul or review the current strategy which is being used to fight armed robbery in the country. The professional manner in which the robbery was executed demands a new strategy to deal with the criminals.

The Chronicle is very much concerned about this armed robbery menace because it has the potential to reverse the forward match of this country. No investor will come and invest in a country where he or she is not sure about the safety of his or her investment. Due to the liberalisation of the economy and the changes that has been introduced into the banking industry by the Bank of Ghana, many banks are trooping into the country. With the inflow of this huge capital investments into our financial sector, which is a boost to the economy, the state has the responsibility to ensure that these banks operate in an environment that is safe and secured.

Ghana is now considered as the most peaceful country in the West African sub-region, which status is helping to woo investors into the country. However, if our security agencies and the government do not put their feet down, these armed robbery cases could jeopardize our success story. It is our hope that all the stakeholders that have been mentioned would put their house in order and come with new ideas to deal with this canker, which is gradually destroying our society.

In the interim, The Chronicle would like to offer few suggestions. It is an undeniable fact that the current strength of our police service cannot help to adequately fight this type of sophisticated crime. There is definitely the need to increase the staff strength of the service. This, however, raises the question about the availability of logistics to match the increase in numbers.

We concede that it is the responsibility of the government to provide protection for everybody, including business entities. But looking at the constrain in the budget of the Police service, we suggest that it is about time the private sector also lent the police and government a helping hand.

It is the duty of government to provide energy for both domestic consumption and industrial use, but when the energy crisis set in, the mining companies did not look up to the government alone to solve the problem. They made available funds to purchase emergency powers to complement what is being provided by the VRA. We propose a similar arrangement by the banks together with the police service to create a Police Fund, which will be used to complement the efforts of the police, such as recruiting more personnel, providing logistics and meeting accommodation needs among others.

Recently, the Accra Regional Police Commander disclosed that there were some banks in Ghana which were not being provided with police guard, due to lack of police personnel.

The Chronicle also thinks it would be more appropriate if the government make available two or more helicopters which will respond to emergency situations. Helicopters could have helped the police to monitor the movement of the armed robbers as they ran away with their booty.

We also suggest the overhaul of the police communication system to enable them deal expeditiously with cases like armed robbery. In the developed world, the police depend on effective communication gadgets to clamp down on criminals, which we must also adopt.

While the police are expected to tackle robbery in financial institutions, those entities could also put in place some form of security- including Close Circuit Camera Television (CCTV), since in the case of the Ecobank robbery, if there had been a CCTV recording, the faces of the robbers would have been captured.