Accra, July 15, GNA - The National Bankers Association (N.B.A.) has teamed with a popular, nationally-syndicated radio talk show host, Warren Ballentine, to organize a national campaign to get consumers in the urban areas to do business with minority banks.

The promotional campaign, dubbed "The People's Economic Movement," is being orchestrated to coincide with the unveiling of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial statue in Washington, D.C. on August 28. In a release issued to the Ghana News Agency, Michael Grant, President of NBA said this self-help and empowerment movement was designed to stimulate the much-needed economic development at the nation's urban core. He said consumers would begin a process of harnessing their economic strength to benefit to their communities which were still suffering from th= e worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

"This can be achieved by depositing their money in minority banks, getting mortgages, small business loans or loans for college tuition from banks in their communities," he said,

Mr Ballentine explained: "This recession has created not a moment in time but a movement in time where community economic development would only come with an intelligent and targeted approach to managing money." He said by people investing their money in the minority banks in their own communities, they would begin to see how to make capitalism work in their favour.

A press conference to kick-off the campaign will be held on Friday, Jul= y 15, 2011 at the headquarters of the National Bankers Association in Washington, D.C. The National Bankers Association is a consortium of African-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American and Native-American owned banks. The Association's member banks operate branches in 29 cities located across America.

In the aggregate, these banks have over $15 billion in assets and serve over 3 million depositors.