The ARB Apex Bank, a ‘mini’ central bank mandated to offer support services and to boost access to Rural and Community Banks in Ghana, opens its new office building in Koforidua, a suburb of Eastern Region.
The new building, which is worth GH¢3,142 million, consists of a regional office branch on the ground floor, an ultramodern conference room on the first floor, and other additional offices for the Association of Rural Banks in the Eastern Region.
The Second Deputy Governor of the Bank of Ghana, Mrs. Elsie Addo Awadzi, speaking at the official unveiling of the new building intimated that this depicts the ARB Apex Bank’s willingness to make its service available to impact and benefit both RCBs and their customers alike.
“The Commissioning of this building signals ARB Apex Bank’s readiness to expand the reach and impact of its work for the benefit of Rural and Community Banks and the customers they serve. ARB Apex Bank has played a pivotal role in facilitating effective rural financial intermediation over the years through its provision of banking and non-banking support services to RCBs with the aim of helping, to effectively address the banking needs of rural communities”.
ARB Apex Bank plays a crucial role in facilitating effective rural and community banking, Mrs. Elsie Addo Awadzi opined, encouraging the board and management to go the extra mile.
“We expect that ARB Apex bank will continue to promote good cooperate governance, effective risk management, strong internal controls, consumer protection, and digitization in the RCB sector to help reposition the sector in this fast-evolving financial services space in Ghana.”
The Second Deputy Governor, further asserted that the “ARB Apex Bank’s recent ISO 27,001 certification is a major achievement that will help it to enhance information security in the rural and community banking environment going forward, and this will help to reduce the incidence of fraud and other related risks in the sector.”
The Bank of Ghana keeps on exploring ways to boost the capacity of ARB Apex Bank to shore up the RCB sector and its customers. “Once again, I congratulate the Board, Management and staff ARB Apex Bank on the successful completion of this ultra-modern facility,” she added.
The Managing Director for ARB Apex Bank, Kojo Mattah, addressing the audience, beckoned the general public to continue trusting RCBs and not be hesitant in transacting with them.
“ARB Apex Bank is a service facilitator and a mini central bank for rural and community banks in the country. We have 145 rural banks in Ghana, and these banks have been able to mobilize 4 and half billion Ghana cedis in deposit, the banks also provide loans to their customers, and even during COVID-19, they have given some sort of reliefs by way of interest and moratorium on interest and loan repayment”.
“We serve over six and half million customers, and we pride ourselves to have the largest network of over 800 rural and community bank branches. We are a pivot in the rural economic development, and we believe that rural banking has come to stay, and we would want to assure all our numerous customers to have confidence in the rural and community banks and continue to do business with us”.
A total of 24 rural banks in the Eastern Region have mobilized GHS 650 Million in support of the economy, Mr. Mattah revealed.
“In the Eastern Region, we have about 24 rural banks, and among them, they have mobilized over 650 million Ghana cedis as at June 2020. This is no mean achievement looking at the competition in the banking, and again, I want to encourage our numerous customers and potential customers in the Eastern Region to continue doing business with the rural and community banks that are in their communities”.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of ARB Apex Bank, Dr. Toni Aubynn, sharing his thoughts at the programme stated that processes are being put in place to ensure that the much-awaited Rural and Community Banks’ Agency Banking project is realized to help create jobs in various communities and increase the commission pool for the banks.
ARB Apex Bank would keep on making relevant and significant investments in the Eastern Region to make sure RCBs remain in the league of well-performing banks in the country, Dr. Aubynn assured.
