The ARB Apex Bank has received approval from shareholders to purchase 12 armoured cash transport vehicles, commonly known as bullion vans, at GH¢32 million.

This is to curb recent armed robbery attacks targeted at cash-carrying vehicles belonging to rural banks across the country.

At the 19th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the bank last Saturday, the Managing Director, Mr Kojo Mattah, said the move had been endorsed by the shareholders of the bank.

He expressed concern at the increasing robbery incidents involving rural banks, saying the measure was to remove the threat of robbery on such transport services.

Advice

Mr Mattah advised the banks to take extra security precautions by reinforcing vaults and premises, improve close circuit television (CCTV) surveillance, and carry out proper screening of security personnel and staff.

He said the ARB Apex Bank continued to invest heavily in information communication technology (ICT), which, he said, had become a key business enabler all over the world.

“Today, we can boast of a modern ICT backbone, which is helping us to develop innovative customer-centric products for our clients. I am happy to announce that the Data Centre upgrade being funded by the World Bank has been completed, and I believe that our banks can attest to the vast improvement in service turnaround time on the network and the improved real-time communication between rural and community banks (RCBs) and Apex Data Centre, as well as the Disaster Recovery Site.

“The Data Centre upgrade is also aiding the operation of our Mobile Money Interoperability, which would allow our esteemed customers the opportunity to perform enhanced services on their phones and through stand-alone points of sale (PoS) devices, and help our banks to improve their commission and fee earning capacity,” he stated.

Bank’s capitalisation

The shareholders also gave approval for the bank to increase its stated capital by converting two per cent of the five per cent deposits of members to capital, subject to Bank of Ghana’s approval.

The Board Chairman, Dr Tony Aubyn, said the bank’s paid-up capital stood at GH¢9.2 million as of December 2020, which, he said, was woefully inadequate for its smooth operation.

Investment

The Board Chairman noted that the bank continued to invest heavily in infrastructure to support the smooth running of all RCBs.

He said besides the $8 million funding from the Ministry of Finance and the World Bank, the board recently approved an additional $1.2 million to support the upgrade of the Data Centre and the Disaster Recovery Site to avert any interruption in the operations of the RCBs.

“I wish to assure you that we shall do our best to improve the lot of the banks by maintaining a fine balance between increasing shareholder value and sustaining the industry as a whole,” he said.