Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) have been asked to institute Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Security Policies to ensure that risks associated with the implementation of ICT products are reduced to the minimum.
The Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank , Mr Kwadwo Aye Kusi , gave the advice in a speech read on his behalf at the 13th Annual General Meeting of the Builsa Community Bank held at Sandema in the Builsa North District of the Upper East Region at the weekend .
He said with the current pace of development in ICT there was no doubt that RBCs would assume additional risks and new challenges, adding that to minimize the risks there was the need to adopt effective risk management steps to deal with any eventuality.
The Managing Director who commended the Builsa Community Bank for its outstanding performance for the 2010-2011 year, entreated the Management and Staff of the bank to deepen the Bank’s micro finance businesses to empower them to improve upon their overall results.
He advised the Bank to put a premium on good customer service, noting that today’s banking depended on the provision of quality service to the customers.
"it is therefore important for your bank to address the issue by investing in training programmes that will enable your staff to improve upon service delivery. You must endeavour to build a good corporate image for yourselves to ensure the loyalty of your customers and patronage of your products".
Mr Kusi said to boost investor confidence in the rural banking sector, plans were far advanced by the ARB Apex Bank and its partners to establish a unit to manage share issues for RCBs including the payment of dividends and other related services .
He announced that with the current reorganization of the of the pension scheme in Ghana his outfit was in the process of creating a special unit to provide custodial services for RCBs tiers one and two pension contributions.
He stated that the ARB Apex Bank and DANIDA had instituted a merger fund to assist RCBs who intended merging and said it was better to merge to render quality services to customers instead of staying alone and collapsing as a business entity.
The Board Chairman of the Bank , Mr Ayaric Avabe Pascal said the bank would intensify its share capital mobilization to provide the needed fund for its operation, maintain an effective risk management framework that would identify , assess , monitor and control operations, credit and other risks that the bank may be exposed to.
The bank, he indicated, would also continue to provide quality service to its clients and to build a strong human resource base to bring about quality service delivery to customers.