The Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) has signed an implementation entity agreement valued at 20.83 million dollars with ARB Apex Bank Limited to enable all the 121 rural banks to be interconnected on a common platform. The agreement is to expand and accelerate the Ghana Rural Bank Computerization and Interconnectivity Project (GRBIP), a key component of the financial services activities of the Millennium Challenge Compact, signed between the governments of Ghana and the USA. At the signing agreement, Mr Martin Eson-Benjamin, Chief Executive officer, MiDA, explained that a lot of time was taken to put the agreement together as it related to a growing section of the financial services industry and also because of the urgent need to spread its benefits to the masses of the rural poor engaged in agriculture. He said the project had been designed to extend the depth and value of financial services provided to rural populations including farmers, served or underserved, by reinforcing their integration into the cash economy. "These projects will connect all rural banks into the national payment systems and also facilitate internal and international remittance flows,” he said. He added that, it would build on the capabilities of rural banks that were privately-owned generally by members of the local communities. According to Mr Eson-Benjamin, the ARP Apex Bank would be the major implementing entity, supervising the implementation of the project through an oversight committee headed by the Managing Director of the Bank as well as other key stakeholders such as Bank of Ghana and representatives of the rural banks. He expressed the hope that the collaboration between MiDA, ARB Apex Bank, the Bank of Ghana and other contractors to be selected to manage the project would ensure that the underserved areas of the country would be opened up to enable them to play a meaningful role in the development and growth of the economy. Mr Eric Osei-Bonsu, Managing Director, Apex Bank, welcomed the timely assistance and gave the assurance that it would go a long way to accelerate the transformation of rural banking sector in Ghana. He said Apex Bank had already started a pilot programme under a Rural Financial Service Project (RFSP), initiated by government with support of development partners under which funding was provided for the acquisition of common software for the computerization of one branch each of all rural and community banks in Ghana for a start. Rural banks were then required to extend the facilities to their other branches from their own resources. The MD said the programme, however, posed a lot of concern to the banks because of the amount needed to computerize their operations. He said he was therefore happy that GRBIP had been brought in to offer the rural community banks a good opportunity to develop and implement electronic based products for the rural community. He said by June this year, the project would take off after the steering committee, which was already in place, had finished with the initial preparations. Source: GNA