Rural Banks on course to improve economy in the North

Lawra (U/W), Nov. 10, GNA - Rural banks are on course to make significant impact in growing the economy of northern Ghana as more communities in the area continue to apply to the Bank of Ghana to be given permission to establish banks.

The latest communities who have reached advance stages of preparations towards the establishment of their banks are, Kaleo, Nadowli, Wechiau and Funsi in the Upper West Region and Bole, Sawla and Damongo in the Northern Region.

Mr Sylvester Dery, the North-Western Chapter President of the Association of Rural Banks, said this at the second Rural Banking week celebration at Lawra.

The North-Western Chapter of the Association comprises West Gonja, Bole and the Sawla-Tuna Kalba districts of the Northern Region and the eight districts in the Upper West Region.

The celebration highlighted the activities of rural banks in the country, created awareness of the role rural banks played in national development and educated the public on new products and innovations that had come into the rural banking system.

Apart from having about nine per cent of the total domestic banking deposits in the country, he said, rural banks enjoyed an annual growth of 30 per cent since 1995.

Between 2004 and 2005 seasons, the banks purchased 90 billion cedis cocoa, representing about 60 per cent of the market share. Mr Ambrose Dery, the Upper West Regional Minister, urged management of rural banks to use such forums as platforms to reflect on how to improve their public image in view of financial malpractices that had beset some of the banks.

He commended the association for deciding to introduce more friendly banking products for rural women and urged the banks to provide user-friendly facilities to persons with disabilities.