Following the successful automation of all the Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) in Ghana on Temenos T24 platform for real time online transaction processing; through the parent Bank, Association of Rural Banks (ARB) Apex Bank, the bank has increased her T24 concurrent Users Licence to over 2000 to enable her sustain the increased growth experienced as a result of the deployment.
This has enabled ARB Apex Bank to deepen her statutory regulation/supervisory competence and also offers better financial solutions to the RCBs through which the teeming population of the rural communities is efficiently serviced.
This would also enhance a broader financial intermediation among their rural folks and ensure a wider reach of the rural communities.
Femi Adeoti, managing director and chief executive officer of Inlaks Computers, “the decision to expand the network was borne out of the achievement recorded so far and the recorded growth. The major expectation of the initial rollout which was to sanitize the microfinance industry in Ghana and ensure effective delivery of Apex Bank oversight functions over the RCBs has been achieved and surpassed.”
The integration of Ghana 700 Rural & Community Banks (RCBs) agencies was a World Bank sponsored project executed under the Rural Financial Services Project (RFSP) and further funding was provided by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Government of Ghana under the Millennium Challenge Compact which was managed by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) to holistically address the operational bottlenecks of the rural financial sector, provide various levels of support to the RCBs and also outline regulatory functions to all Rural/Community Banks in Ghana.
Olufemi Muraino, director, sales and marketing, financial business of Inlaks confirmed that the RCBs in Ghana which form the largest percentage of the Microfinance sector of the Ghanaian economy has grown exponentially and are more profitable upon deployment of the T24 platform. It has offered improvement in service delivery of the RCBs making them more efficient. The project also provided the platform for technology scalability as there are now opportunities for deployment of e-Banking (mobile banking solutions, Point Of Sale, ATM and other related internet Banking”. He said.
The computerization and centralization of the operations of all the 136 RCBs with over 700 branches across Ghana was executed base on the Temenos T24 microfinance version (MCB).
The Temenos MCB product presents preconfigured features, modules and reporting specific to microfinance and community banking. T24 for MCB supports retail operations, micro lending and credit unions.