RDF Ghana LBG in collaboration with the National Banking College, with support from the Association of Rural Banks (ARB) and ARB Apex Bank, has unveiled a training programme named RDF Executive Management Essentials for Rural Banking (REMERB) to meet the growing training needs of the Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) in Ghana.

In an event which took place at the National Banking College, assembling over 50 key stakeholders in the Rural and Community Banking sector, the principal collaborators engaged participants on the details of REMERB and allowed for discourse on the inclusion of other elements which could further strengthen the programme.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of RDF Ghana. Mr. Yaw Oppong said,“RDF Ghana finds it gratifying to be spearheading support to institutions which are central to the execution of our mandate to promote inclusive rural development in Ghana by primarily providing finance to the agricultural and renewable energy value chains and supplementing this intervention with technical assistance.”   

According to him, the partnership for such a programme emerged from consistent and intentional engagements with RDF’s partner financial institutions (PFIs).

The CEO said appraisals of these PFIs were consolidated and their challenges teased out for the formulation of a remedial programme which has now come to be known as RDF Executive Management Essentials for Rural Banking (REMERB). 

“It is important to acknowledge that this programme has become possible because of our partnership with the National Banking College, which has been gracious in making their expertise and time available to help develop this programme,” he added.

For her part, the Principal of the National Banking College, Ms. Gloria Darline Quartey said, “The National Banking College is privileged to be the principal implementer of this innovative programme by RDF Ghana.

"We decided to go on this journey with RDF Ghana because the goal of RDF is to see a more robust and resilient rural banking system in Ghana subsumed in our mission as a college to provide professional training to deliver the capacity for sustained quality service of the banking and financial services industry through demand-driven Training, Applied Research, Consultancy and Information Dissemination."

She said they are hopeful that the programme will yield the desired result by contributing to building the competencies of the Rural and Community Banks that are at the forefront of delivering banking services to areas that need them the most. 

A board member of RDF Ghana, Florence Ohene Kyei, unveiled an art piece to mark the opening of the programme.

The Director of studies at the National Banking College, Dr. Stephen Antwi, the lead facilitator of REMERB, took participants through the course modules and invited his colleague faculty members to speak on various aspects of the programme for which they would be facilitating.

The session was followed by a period for questions and input into the programme.

Dr. Antwi expressed his satisfaction with the progress of the programme formulation and spoke about the eagerness of his faculty in making the programme work.  

The RCBs were represented by the Executive Director of the Association of Rural Banks, Mrs. Comfort Owusu and the sector regulator, represented by the CEO of ARB Apex Bank, Mr. Alex Awuah, both partners of the event.

The two entities in their separate remarks commended RDF Ghana LBG and NBC for providing invaluable industry-wide support.

The event brought together CEOs of RCBs — the direct beneficiaries of REMERB — from various regions across the country who generally expressed that the programme was a timely and useful intervention to help them overcome the obstacles besetting the sector.