Rural Banks Appeal Against Rising Cost of Police Guards

Rural and community banks in the country have appealed to the government to intervene and save them from imminent collapse due to the high fese paid for police guard duties.

The Board Chairman of the South Birem Rural Bank, Mr Robert Kwasi Amoah, who is also the Member of Parliament (MP)?for Akyem Achiase, made the appeal on behalf of the banks through the Daily Graphic at Achiase in the Eastern Region last Wednesday.

He stated that currently, each rural or community bank paid GH�2,100 on a single policeman on guard duty for one month.

Mr Amoah said a rural or community bank with six branches had to pay as much as GH�176,400 annually on police guard duties alone.

He stated that if nothing concrete was done to reduce the fees paid for police guard duties, most of the rural and community banks would fold up as the annual net profits of some of the banks were far lower than the amounts paid for police guard duties.

The ARB Apex Bank�s end-of-year report on rural and community bank for 2013 sighted by this reporter indicated that 46 out of the 136 banks nationwide would have negative profit and therefore collapse.

�Fifty per cent or more of the profits of 45 rural and community banks will have few or no incentive to continue operation. The situation is aggravated when a bank has more than five branches,� it stated.

According to the report, only 45 out of the 136 banks would survive and continue in business.

�We can imagine the serious repercussion this will have on our rural farmers, retailers and small businesses, not to mention the workers who will have to be laid off,� the report added.

According to Mr Amoah, because banks were the targets of armed robbery, it was imperative to engage the services of armed police personnel.

He, therefore, appealed to the government to impress upon the Police Administration to reduce the charges on police guard duties at the banks to prevent them from collapsing so they could continue to offer the needed financial assistance to the rural communities.

Source: Graphic Online