Ho, June 10, GNA - Mr Ken Appenteng-Mensah, Microfinance Advisor of Support Programme for Enterprise Empowerment and Development (SPEED), has said bad customer service remained a major challenge to rural banks. He said many front desk workers at those banks were not customer friendly and drove customers away with their attitude. Mr Appenteng-Mensah said this in Ho on Tuesday at a day's training workshop organized by SPEED for rural banks, credit unions and financial non-governmental organizations in the Ho Municipal area with support from DANIDA and GTZ.

He said lack of customer consciousness coupled with other bad public perceptions about rural banks were the factors inhibiting the progress of the banks and urged stakeholders to rise up to that challenge.

"You are operating in a lot of mistrust, bad perceptions and half truth which call for massive education to let people appreciate your work," Mr Appenteng-Mensah said.

He said the time where bank managers sat in their offices for eight hours is past and advised managers at rural and community banks to frequent the banking hall to be in touch with the customers. Mr Godwin Kodzovi Ahadzi, Bank Manager of Anlo Rural Bank, said he was optimistic that the future was bright for rural banks in the Volta Region despite the springing up of commercial banks everywhere including rural areas.

"Our strategies are different and smarter so we are not threatened by the influx of commercial banks, they are only making noise to attract some few urban poor," he said.

Mr Ahadzi said unnecessary government interventions were affecting the ability of rural banks to help reduce poverty in the country. He alleged that some politicians sent tall lists of loan seekers to the banks with instructions that they be given loans without any investigation and this accounted for high loan default rate among rural banks.