Kwabeng, (ER) Sept 23, GNA – Mr Emmanuel Atta Twum, the District Chief Executive for Atiwa, has observed that poverty levels in the rural communities could be reduced to an appreciable level if farmers had easy access to credit to boost their production.

He has, therefore, appealed to rural banks to channel a greater percentage of their loans and overdrafts into agriculture to enable farmers to maximize production.

Addressing the 21st Annual General Meeting of the Atiwa Rural Bank at Kwabeng, Mr Atta Twum observed that the issue of providing collateral security and competition with other sectors for loans from the commercial banks tended to work to the disadvantage of agriculture.

This is because the level of risks encountered in agriculture was much higher.

He said poverty was “our common enemy” and called for concerted efforts to help fight it.

Mr Atta Twum said through the Financial Sector Reform Programme (FINSAP) rural banks had played a significant role in the development of rural communities.

He was happy to note that the Atiwa Rural Bank was no exception and said the bank had actually brought banking services closer to the people by way of mobilizing local financial resources for safe keeping, granting of loans and overdrafts and investments.

Mr Atta Twum announced that the Government would soon introduce the Youth in Agriculture Programme and urged the bank to participate in it with other financial institutions.

He appealed to the management of the bank to introduce flexible arrangements for small and medium scale enterprises in the district to access credit.

The DCE gave the assurance that the government would put in place sound macro-economic policies, a regulatory framework and also strengthen banking supervision to help promote a vibrant and sustainable financial sector.

Mr Eric Osei-Bonsu, Managing Director, ARB Apex Bank Limited, announced that the sensitization on the regulations and Bye-Laws of the ARB Apex Bank Regulations, 2006, (L.I.1825) had been concluded and were awaiting Bank of Ghana’s approval for its implementation.

Mr Osei-Bonsu urged the bank to be guided by the contents of those documents to avoid the imposition of penalties by the regulatory authorities for non-compliance.

He reiterated his call to rural and community banks (RCBs) to merge to be able to stay in business.

Mr Osei-Bonsu challenged the bank to invest in training programmes for its staff that would help them to improve on service delivery to attract more customers.

Tags: BUSINESS, farmers, loans