MiDA And ARB Apex Bank Sign Agreement

The Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) has signed an implementation entity agreement valued at $20.83 million with ARB Apex Bank Limited. The money is to be used to interconnect all the 121 rural banks in the country. The agreement is to expand and accelerate the Ghana Rural Bank Computerization and Interconnectivity project (GRBIP), a key component of the financial services activities of the Millennium Challenge Compact, signed between the governments of Ghana and the USA. At the signing ceremony, Mr Martin Eson-Benjamin, Chief Executive officer of MiDA, said the project had been designed to extend useful financial services to rural populations. That would ensure their integration into the cash economy. "These projects will connect all rural banks into the national payment systems and also facilitate internal and international remittance flows,” he said. He added that, it would build the capacities of rural banks that were privately-owned by members of the local communities. According to Mr Eson-Benjamin, the ARP Apex Bank would be the major implementing entity, supervising the implementation of the project through an oversight committee headed by the Managing Director of the Bank as well as other key stakeholders such as Bank of Ghana and representatives of the rural banks. He expressed the hope that the collaboration between MiDA, ARB Apex Bank, the Bank of Ghana and other contractors to be selected to manage the project would ensure that the underserved areas of the country would be opened up to enable them to play a meaningful role in the development and growth of the economy. Mr Eric Osei-Bonsu, Managing Director, Apex Bank, welcomed the assistance and gave the assurance that it would be used to accelerate the transformation of rural banking in Ghana. He said Apex Bank had already started a pilot programme under a Rural Financial Service Project (RFSP), initiated by the government with support from donor agencies. The MD said the programme was, however, faced with some challenges mainly bothering on finance. He therefore expressed appreciation for the GRBIP saying it would offer the rural and community banks an opportunity to develop and implement electronic based products for the rural communities. He said by June this year, the project would take off after the steering Committee, which was already in place, had finished with the initial preparations.