One of the trends today, especially when shoring up family finances in Ghana, is the issue of keeping joint bank account among spouses.
Unlike in the distant past, when such would have been inconceivable, since the masculine gender was supposed to be the sole financier and provider for the home, today, couples operate an account where the man and the woman are supposed to contribute a fraction of their income for its upkeep.
Interestingly, checks by Business Day among some Ghanaians, especially couples, regarding the desirability of keeping a joint account or otherwise, revealed a mixture of opinions among respondents.
For instance, while some see this as very key to ensuring a sound financial footing for the family and, therefore the way to go, others would rather prefer the husband and the wife to go for separate bank account.
“What statement are you making by keeping a joint account with your wife? None, because it is always lopsided,” said a respondent, Emmanuel Kabutey, while reacting to the issue.
“Joint account simply means that the account is co-owned by the man and his wife and either of them can have access to it at any time without any hindrance. The account holders can all pay into the account, write cheques or withdraw cash although sometimes more than one person needs to agree to this.
But the challenge here is that you feel cheated, either as husband or as wife, when you begin to have the feeling that the account is more beneficial to the other party, which is usually the case. It just will not add up,” Mr. Kabutey, who worked in a multinational mining company,” added.
Curiously, Mr Kabutey is not alone. Mr. Richard Ayingo, a banker, whose five-year-old marriage is blessed with two kids also kicked against the opening of joint account by couples. For him, it is simply un-African.
“It is thoroughly alien to the African culture for a man to be maintaining a joint account with his wife. Ideally, the role of the man is to fend for the family, which includes his wife, so what purpose would the account be serving? It is a way of running away from your responsibilities as a man if you are insisting on a joint account and such men always end up having their fingers burnt,” he noted.
He continued: “I asked a friend to send his bank account details to enable me meet some financial obligations to a friend. I was shocked when I was furnished with the details of an account jointly owned by my friend and his wife. Initially, I saw the action as very strange, only to discover that quite a number of families today have a dedicated account which the husband and the wife jointly operate but I have vowed not to keep one.”
Perhaps, nothing substantiates Mr Ayingo’s position than the recent experience that Mr Jerry Mensah, another respondent, had with his now enstranged wife. The couple had been married for more than one decade, and were always doing everything in common until the ‘bubble’ burst last year.
“Even the first house I built was in her name, nobody envisaged things could go awry. And when the unexpected happened, she simply laid claim to the property. I had to move out because she eventually asked for a divorce from the courts, which was granted. I was homeless for sometime before building this one. You can imagine what would have happened if I didn’t have the wherewithal to respond appropriately. The pains, the agonies and the memories would have followed me to my grave,” Mr Mensah, who is a Civil Servant, told Business Day in Accra.
Curiously, this position is not peculiar to the masculine gender. For instance, Mrs. Esther Fianu, a teacher, would not, in any way, support the idea of a co-ownership of a bank account.
“Not that I don’t love my husband, after all we’ve been married for over 15 years now, but the fact remains that when it comes to the issue of spending, he, like any other man, always exercises less restraints. So, operating an account with such person could make you go bankrupt. And to prevent this, why not operate separate accounts and, perhaps agree on a common ground?” she asked.
Curiously, one man’s meat may turn out to be another’s poison, as Mr. and Mrs. Adashie have been operating a joint account ever since they got married in 2009. For the couple, rather than being divisive, operating a joint account could be a couple’s way of actually testing the true strength of their love.
“We’ve never, at any time, had any cause to quarrel over this. For us, keeping such account has gone a long way in enhancing the relationship. We know why we are operating the account, so the issue of abuse does not arise at all,” Mr. Anthony Adashie, a mine worker told Business Day.
Corroborating her husband’s claim, Mrs. Georgina Adashie, an Accountant with an auto company in Accra, believes the realities of today no longer support the idea of the man doing it alone. The wife must also lend a hand, she stated.
“You know, in most cases, joint accounts in the family are always meant for the family upkeep, and once this is known from the onset, there is no way it could lead to disagreement,” she added.
On the saving modality, she and her husband had adopted, Mrs Adashie admitted that despite the fact that the husband contributes the larger share that has not, in any way, led to any rancour.
A personal finance expert, Roger Adjovu, who works with Liberty Capital, an investment bank in Tema, however, believes that though joint accounts among couples are desirable, it should be based on mutual agreement.
“Before a couple would go into such venture, they have to ensure that they have at least a fair knowledge of each other as far as finance is concerned,” Mr Adjovu who has over 10 years’ experience in personal finance has stated.
He continued: “What normally leads to rancor is when one party believes he or she is giving more than he/she is getting, that is why there must be some degree of understanding.”
Contributing, another personal finance expert, Mrs Elizabeth Johnson, who works with Stanchart said: “Joint ownership has become inevitable because of the present economic situation in the country. There is nothing wrong with it, as long as that understanding is there.”
Kelley Long, a certified public accountant and financial planner, argues that separate accounts are good for a marriage because they help prevent clashes over differences in spending styles.
“Money has been cited time and again in studies and by experts as a big source of marital conflict and divorce—even in households where there’s plenty of it,” he noted.
Many couples need to have separate accounts to maintain financial and emotional harmony in their relationships, Kelly stated.
Perhaps, determining the desirability or otherwise of joint ownership may be a Herculean task, but the common ground is that every family must have a way of shoring up its finances at this perilous economic times.
If couples plan to have joint account, then communication is key. Couples need to agree on how much each will contribute to the shared household expenses and savings. They also need a set of ground rules, such as no money can’t be spent without a spouse’s input—say, buying a new car, among others.
