Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) have been tasked to improve their customer services in order to avoid being overshadowed by the universal banks in the country.
The Managing Director of the Apex Rural Bank Limited (ARB), Mr K. Aye Kusi, who made this call, said there was the need for staff orientation to enable them to embrace excellence in customer service as a culture and not as a tool for doing business.
According to him, competition in the banking industry had necessitated the need for RCBs to improve customer services to attract new customers and maintain existing ones.
These were contained in a speech read on his behalf at the 22nd Annual General Meeting of the Ga Rural Bank Limited last Saturday at Amasaman, near Accra.
The meeting, which was attended by various shareholders of the bank, was used to approve the appointments of new members of the board and to receive the bank’s financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2013.
Mr Kusi said owing to the competitive and risky nature of banking business, there was the need for RCBs to adopt effective risk management system in order to minimise their losses.
He, therefore, advised staff of RCBs to be extra vigilant and careful in their day-to-day operations to prevent “unscrupulous fraudsters” from defrauding them.
The board chairman of the bank, Nana Bram Okae II, called on the government to take a critical look at the implementation of Value Added Tax (VAT) on banking services since it had the potential to discourage savings and negatively affect overall deposit mobilisation.