The Association of Rural Banks-Ghana, which is made up of the over-one hundred and forty rural banks in Ghana, has launched a new corporate cloth.

The launch of new corporate Friday-wear was part of activities marking the 21^st Biennial General Meeting held recently at Miklin Hotel in Kumasi.

The new cloth, according to the National Council, is a consistent move to maintain the Association’s corporate image and brand awareness.

The Executive Director of the Association, Mrs. Comfort Owusu, tells Business & Financial Times that t introducing the new cloth is part of the Association’s reform approach to meet current marketing trends in the banking industry.

According to her, healthy competition in the banking industry is bringing some innovative strategies and the member banks have the responsibility to make a conscious effort at meeting the prevailing standards.

The Association has made very significant impacts by driving the advocacy agenda and making very meaningful contributions to the well-being of member rural banks.

Mrs. Owusu attested to the fact that the banking environment has experienced some challenges since the government started the clean-up and with the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, but member rural banks have exhibited some level of resilience and have been able to withstand the difficult times.

According to her, introducing the corporate cloth is one of the many marketing activities that will be rolled out in the year 2021. She is however confident that by next year member rural banks will have surmounted all challenges and taken off well to serve the over six million customers scattered across the country. The rural and community bank subsector of the financial industry continues to show signs of resilience despite punitive impacts from the outbreak of COVID-19 on the economy, recording some modest growth in deposit mobilization.

The banking industry subsector recorded total deposits of GH¢4.32billion as at end of the second quarter of 2020. The 23.1% year-on-year trend of growth for RCBs deposits followed an increase from GH₵2.85billion recorded at the end of 2017 to GH₵3.83billion recorded in 2019.

Total loans and advances also increased, from GH¢1.56billion to GH¢1.69billion, while total assets surged from GH¢4.27billion to GH¢5.1billion over the same period with recorded growth rates of 8.3% and 19.4% respectively.