The rural and community banks in Ghana will soon be hooked on to a technological platform to transact money remittance services via the telecom networks.

This is part of measures introduced by the ARB Apex Bank to assist rural banks to be efficient in the money transfer business. Mr Kenneth Owusu-Twumasi, Head of Human Capital at the ARB Apex Bank, said this at the 2014 Funds Transfer Conference in Kumasi.

The meeting brought together representatives of rural banks in the country to deliberate on how best to improve the money transfer business. It was also aimed at introducing participants to best banking practices that would ensure better services to their clients.

The Ashanti Regional President of the Association of Rural Banks, Nana Akowuah Boamah, said remittance of funds in the rural areas was a challenge but the inception of various banking services had brought relief to both senders and receivers.

Nana Boamah named some of the products as Apex Link, Western Union and MoneyGram. He entreated the banks to work on their strengths and weaknesses to serve their customers better.

The Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank, Kwadwo Aye Kusi, recounted the traditional and new platforms of modern banking and said he was happy that the bank had improved on the quality of its services over the years.

He said the Bank would continue aiming high and appealed to the staff to work harder to achieve the vision set out by the management. “Even though the conference is business in nature, we should also celebrate our successes and achievements.

We must congratulate ourselves, raise pertinent concerns, challenges and address them so that together we can continue to work towards the progress and development of our rural areas,” he stated.

Participants later visited stands mounted by the Apex link, Western Union, and MoneyGram to familiarize themselves with the new products.