Accra, May 31, GNA - Barclays Bank Ghana will next month undertake a walk to raise over 600 million cedis to support the Carter Foundation in its fight to eradicate Guinea worm in the country. The funds will complement the bank's one per cent Pre-Tax profit, which is set aside annually for social investment programmes, Mr. Clifton Best, Chief Operating Officer of Barclays said at the launch of the programme in Accra on Thursday.

Dubbed: the Barclays "Step Ahead,"- a million kilometre walk"- the fundraising activity would be held in Africa countries and the Middle East. It was kicked off in Kenya in December 2006.

Staff and customers of the Bank would be expected to cover a distance of 80,000 kilometres, which was the Bank's share of the million kilometres in three clusters across the country namely Accra, Kumasi and Takoradi.

As part of the programme staff of the bank will be given tickets to sell to customers and family members through the branch network. Mr. Best said the walk was one of Barclays' key social investment activities for the year and follows a successful "Miles Ahead Expedition in Ghana 2005" to promote domestic tourism.

He said the "Step Ahead" would underscore the outstanding record of community involvement in the country and highlight the Bank's commitment to staff and customers and urged them to participate actively in the programme to make it a success. Mr Stephen Opong, Community and Marketing Manager of the Bank said the programme also aimed at involving customers and other stakeholders in the fundraising effort to create awareness for them to play their part in assisting communities.

In addition, "the event is expected to raise the public profile of Barclays through the walk itself and serve as a launch pad for the new Corporate Social Investment strategy in Barclays Africa and the Middle East".