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MiDA and ARB Apex Bank sign agreement
Accra, March 5, Ghanadot/GNA - The Millennium Development
Authority (MiDA) on Wednesday signed an implementation
entity agreement valued at 20.83 million dollars with ARB
Apex Bank Limited to enable all the 121 rural banks to be
interconnected on a common platform.
The agreement is to expand and accelerate the Ghana Rural
Bank Computerization and Interconnectivity project (GRBIP),
a key component of the financial services activities of the
Millennium Challenge Compact, signed between the governments
of Ghana and the USA.
At the signing agreement, Mr Martin Eson-Benjamin, Chief
Executive officer, MiDA, explained that a lot of time was
taken to put the agreement together as it related to a
growing section of the financial services industry and also
because of the urgent need to spread its benefits to the
masses of the rural poor engaged in agriculture.
He said the project had been designed to extend the depth
and value of financial services provided to rural
populations including farmers, served or underserved, by
reinforcing their integration into the cash economy.
"These projects will connect all rural banks into the
national payment systems and also facilitate internal and
international remittance flows,” he said.
He added that, it would build on the capabilities of rural
banks that were privately-owned generally by members of the
local communities.
According to Mr Eson-Benjamin, the ARP Apex Bank would be
the major implementing entity, supervising the
implementation of the project through an oversight committee
headed by the Managing Director of the Bank as well as other
key stakeholders such as Bank of Ghana and representatives
of the rural banks.
He expressed the hope that the collaboration between MiDA,
ARB Apex Bank, the Bank of Ghana and other contractors to be
selected to manage the project would ensure that the
underserved areas of the country would be opened up to
enable them to play a meaningful role in the development and
growth of the economy.
Mr Eric Osei-Bonsu, Managing Director, Apex Bank, welcomed
the timely assistance and gave the assurance that it would
go a long way to accelerate the transformation of rural
banking sector in Ghana.
He said Apex Bank had already started a pilot programme
under a Rural Financial Service Project (RFSP), initiated by
government with support of development partners under which
funding was provided for the acquisition of common software
for the computerization of one branch each of all rural and
community banks in Ghana for a start. Rural banks were then
required to extend the facilities to their other branches
from their own resources.
The MD said the programme, however, posed a lot of concern
to the banks because of the amount needed to computerize
their operations.
He said he was therefore happy that GRBIP had been brought
in to offer the rural community banks a good opportunity to
develop and implement electronic based products for the
rural community.
He said by June this year, the project would take off after
the steering Committee, which was already in place, had
finished with the initial preparations.
GNA
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