Mr Kojo Mattah, the Managing Director, said this was tied in with the government’s agenda of moving the country to a cash-light economy, while also reducing transaction costs. Addressing an annual general meeting of the Bank in Kumasi, he stressed that management was committed to quality service delivery in order to withstand the stiff competition in the banking sector.

The meeting was to review and discuss financial status of the bank, performance of the RCBs, and brief shareholders on innovative products being introduced to enhance rural banking services. They were taken through the new five-year strategic plan to be rolled out by the bank, which focused on the improvement in service delivery and introduction of more innovative products for the benefit of the rural banks.

 Mr Mattah said a quarterly magazine christened ‘The Rural Banker’, which is expected to serve as the mouthpiece of all the RCBs, had been launched. The bank, he said, would be using this platform to tell the success story of the RCB concept, and that, the various banks would have the chance to highlight to their customers the progress being made, as well as their challenges as they worked to meet their demands.

He affirmed the resolve of the Apex bank to raise the image of the rural banking industry to make it the main driving force for the development and transformation of the rural economy. The Managing Director appealed to managers of RCBs to ensure strict compliance in the payment of foreign remittances to avoid ‘call back’ of funds which would invariably lead to a burden on their profit or loss account.