RDF Ghana LBG, a development finance institution, in collaboration with the National Banking College, has unveiled a training programme for Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) to drive sustainability of rural banks and their growth and development.

The programme which was dubbed: RDF Executive Management Essentials for Rural Banking (REMERB), was developed with support from the Association of Rural Banks and ARB Apex Bank to meet the growing training needs of the Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) in the country. The event brought together more than 50 stakeholders in the Rural and Community Banking sector and allowed the principal collaborators to engage participants on the details of REMERB.

Speaking at the event at the National Banking College, the Chief Executive Officer of RDF Ghana LBG, Mr Yaw Oppong, insisted that the training programme is expected to help build a resilient and robust rural banking sector in the country.

“We expect this programme to facilitate regulatory compliance, enhance risk management, and assist the RCBs to better manage their operational costs. Especially, with regard to agricultural financing, a sector within which most of the RCBs operate, we expect that practical training under the Agricultural Financing course would enhance the appraisal and loan management approach for agricultural financing in the rural areas.”
Mr Yaw Oppong

Mr Oppong said, “RDF Ghana finds it gratifying to be spearheading support to institutions which are central to the execution of our mandate to promote inclusive rural development in Ghana by primarily providing finance to the agricultural and renewable energy value chains and supplementing this intervention with technical assistance.”

According to Mr Oppong, the partnership for the programme is as a result of consistent and intentional engagements with RDF’s partner financial institutions (PFIs).

The Formulation of REMERB

The CEO noted that appraisals of these PFIs are consolidated and their challenges teased out for the formulation of a remedial programme which has now come to be known as RDF Executive Management Essentials for Rural Banking (REMERB).

“It is important to acknowledge that this programme has become possible because of our partnership with the National Banking College, which has been gracious in making their expertise and time available to help develop this programme.”
Mr Yaw Oppong

The Principal of the National Banking College, Ms Gloria Darline Quartey, on her part, stated how privileged her institution is to help them with implementation of the programme to have a robust rural banking sector.

“The National Banking College is privileged to be the principal implementer of this innovative programme by RDF Ghana. We decided to go on this journey with RDF Ghana because the goal of RDF is to see a more robust and resilient rural banking system in Ghana subsumed in our mission as a college to provide professional training to deliver the capacity for sustained quality service of the banking and financial services industry, through demand-driven Training, Applied Research, Consultancy and Information Dissemination.

“We are hopeful that the programme will yield the desired result by contributing to building the competencies of the Rural and Community Banks that are at the forefront of delivering banking services to areas that need them the most.”
Ms Gloria Darline Quartey

The RCBs were represented by the Executive Director of the Association of Rural Banks, Mrs Comfort Owusu and the sector regulator, represented by the CEO of ARB Apex Bank, Mr Alex Awuah, both partners of the event. The two entities in their separate remarks commended RDF Ghana LBG and NBC for providing invaluable industry-wide support. They generally expressed that the programme was a timely and useful intervention to help them overcome the obstacles besetting the sector.