Consider Mergers - Apex Bank boss tells rural banks

Mr Eric Osei Bonsu - Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank

The Managing Director of ARB APEX Bank Limited, Mr Eric Osei-Bonsu, has urged rural and community banks (RCBs) to consider cooperative mergers as a way of ensuring their stay in business.

Mr Osei-Bonsu said this in a speech read on his behalf by Mrs Francisca Dedei Attipoe, Head of Human Capital and Administration Department of Apex Bank limited, at the 26th Annual General Meeting of shareholders of Brakwa Breman Rural Bank.

He urged RCBs to brace themselves to meet the cost of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in terms of software maintenance, repair, depreciation, upgrade and replacement.

Mr Osei-Bonsu said to achieve that, there was the need for RCBs to raise more capital, which was very difficult in view of the fact that poverty was endemic in most of their areas of operation.

He said competition in the banking industry was normal and inevitable, adding that the surest way to face increased competition was to improve their customer services to attract new ones and to maintain existing ones.

Mr Osei-Bonsu urged the Brakwa-Breman Rural Bank to organise orientation courses for the staff to improve upon their performance in order to attract more customers.

He said if that was done, the bank would become synonymous with excellence in customer care to enable it to withstand the pressure of increased competition.

He advised the management of the bank to put in place pragmatic programmes and policies to sustain its operations.

Mr Osei-Bonsu urged the bank to make sure that debtors paid up to enable others to benefit from its loan policy.

The Board Chairman of the bank, Commodore Charles K. Addae, said although the bank recorded a slight decrease in profit from GHc41,166 in 2009 to GHc38,905 in 2010, its total capital increased from GHc156,752 in 2009 to GHc160,354 in 2010. A dividend of 0.002 per share was declared, amounting to GHc7,609.51. GNA