Koforidua, Nov. 28, GNA - The Deputy Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Ahmed Babal Jamal, has called on rural and community banks to make their products more attractive to attract more customers. He said some rural and community banks were collapsing due to the unattractiveness of their products, unskilled human resource and lack of committed staff.

Mr Jamal has, therefore, appealed to the management and Board of Directors of the banks to obtain qualified human resource and equip them with skills and knowledge to ensue maximum productivity. The Deputy Regional Minister made the call at the opening of the 16th Biennial General Meeting of the Association of Rural Banks at Koforidua on Friday. He said a good number of rural and community banks had operated profitably and satisfactorily and had made significant impact on the communities they served through the provision of potable water, electricity, toilets, school buildings and the award of scholarships to brilliant but needy students among other services.

Mr Baba-Jamal said the main objective of rural banks was aimed at stimulating and transforming the rural subsistence economy into sustained medium-scale enterprises capable of creating employment, initiating and promoting agricultural and cottage industries through financial intermediation.

He said after nearly three and half decades of the rural banking concept some accomplishments had been made towards the realization of the set objectives. Mr Baba-Jamal said the government had introduced a lot of micro finance schemes through the rural banks aimed at alleviating poverty and urged the banks to offer good services to the people and help them to manage the money profitably. The President of Association of Rural Banks, Mrs Rose E. Newman, said the meeting constituted a solid platform for them to summon a new spirit of responsibility, sacrifice, service and commitment. She said most of their members were making great strides in the banking industry and urged them to work extra hard for them to reach greater heights.