Senya Beraku (C/R), Aug. 20, GNA - The ARB Apex Bank is encouraging rural banks to have audit unit as part of their management to avoid the tragic consequences associated with poor internal controls. Mr. Emmanuel Kwapong, Managing Director of the ARB Apex Bank, said this in a speech read for him at the fifth Annual General Meeting of the Union Bank Limited at Senya Beraku on Saturday. He said the Internal Auditor should help to oversee the implementation of bank's systems and controls and report directly to the Board or a board sub-committee.

Mr Kwapong said a good bank without proper internal controls was only waiting for a disaster. On the computerization of Rural and Community banks, he said the Millennium Challenge Account MCA) would provide funds to install a Wide Area Network (WNA) to connect all the rural banks to the Apex Bank and the Bank of Ghana.

He said the Union Bank was the first and only fully networked rural bank in Ghana with the support of the World Bank, Bank of Ghana and the Apex Bank.

The chairman of the Board of Directors of the banks, Mr. Kwesi Essel-Koomson, said the bank made a pre tax profit of 890 million cedis in 2006 against 722 million cedis in 2005. He described the general performance of the bank as very impressive and appealed to people in the area to become customers. The Minister of for Public Sector Reforms, Mr. Samuel Owusu-Adjei, urged rural banks to change policies that did not benefit customers and the bank.

Mr. Owusu-Adjei, the Member of Parliament for Effutu, appealed to the banks not to delay in giving out financial assistance channelled through them to the people.

The District Chief Executive for Awutu-Effutu-Senya, Mr. Solomon Abbam-Quaye, appealed to loan beneficiaries to re-pay them to enable the bank assist others. 20 Aug. 07