Brakwa (C/R), Sept 18, GNA - Mr Eric Osei-Bonsu, Managing Director of ARB APEX Bank Limited, has urged Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) to consider cooperative mergers as a way of ensuring their stay in business.

Mr Osei-Bonsu said this in a speech read by Mrs Francisca Dedei Attipoe, Head of Human Capital and Administration Department of Apex Bank limited, at the 26th Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of Brakwa Breman Rural Bank on Saturday.

He urged RCBs to brace themselves up to meet the maintenance cost of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in teams of software maintenance cost, repair, depreciation, upgrade and replacement.

Mr Osei-Bonsu said to achieve this there was the need for RCBs to raise more capital which was very difficult in view of the fact that poverty was endemic in most of their catchments areas.

He said competition in the banking industry was normal and inevitable adding that the surest way to face increased competition was to improve their customer services to attract new ones and to maintain existing ones.

Mr Osei-Bonsu urged Brakwa-Breman Bank to organise orientation courses for the staff to improve upon their performance to attract more customers to the bank.

He said if this is done the bank would become synonymous with excellence in customer care to enable it to withstand the pressure of increased competition.

He advised the management of the bank to put in place pragmatic programs and policies to sustain its operations.

Mr Osei-Bonsu urged the bank to collect all its debts to enable others to benefit from its loan policy.

Commodore Charles K. Addae, Board Chairman of the bank, said the bank recorded a slight decrease in profit from 41,166 Ghana cedis in 2009 to 38,905 Ghana cedis in 2010.

According to him, in spite of this, the bank’s total capital increased from 156,752 in 2009 to 160,354 Ghana cedis in 2010 and was able to declare dividend of 0.002 per share, amounting 7,609.51 Ghana cedis.

CDR. Addae said the bank’s total deposit rose from 1,774,622 in 2009 to 2,256,218 Ghana cedis in the year under review.

He therefore encouraged shareholders to increase their shareholdings in order to earn more returns.