Rural Banks throughout the country are to be computerized and connected to the Internet to facilitate communication among them and their counterparts worldwide. The computerization programmer would also put up other satellite facilities that would enable customers transact business with their banks irrespective of their locations in the country.




Mr.Abdul-Raheem Iddi Puyo, Upper West Area Manager of ARB Apex Bank, mother bank of the rural banks said this at Jirapa on Saturday, at the 12th annual general meeting of the Jirapa Sonzelle Rural Bank Limited. He said apart from that, Apex Bank would also assist rural banks to use their surplus money to purchase treasury bills to further improve their financial status. Mr. Puyo also said a series of training programmers were also being organized for all categories of staff of the rural banks to make them more skilful and efficient to handle their various schedules.




Mr. John Bosco Zury, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sonzelle Rural Bank said the bank made a net profit of about 133 million cedis, about 110 percent increase over that of the year 2000, when the bank made 63.5 million cedis as profit. He also said a total of 298.5 million cedis was also given as loan to people engage in commerce, agriculture, education, transport, construction and cottage industries while 10 million was used to sponsor brilliant but needy students in the district. Mr. Zury said within a matter of three years, the bank had been able to establish an Agency at Nadowli and two mobilization centers at Kaleo and Babite while innovations were envisaged for the subsequent years to offer better services to customers.




Mrs. Winifred Bawa-Dy-Yakah, Jirapa/Lambussie District Chief Executive said although the Jirapa Lambussie Assembly was a major shareholder in the bank, it would step up its activities to contribute more to the bank's growth. She called on the management to consider upgrading the skills of staff frequently to enable them to put up their best.