Rural banks in the country have called on the government to extend the deadline fixed for their recapitalization.
The call follows an earlier decision of the government through the Bank of Ghana to raise the capital requirements of the rural banks to Ghc1 million and a subsequent deadline of December 2017 given to meet the new figure.
Making the appeal to government during an encounter with the media, National President of the Association of Rural Banks Ghana – Dr. Nana Akowua Boamah, noted that while the recapitalization measure by the BoG is welcome, some of the rural banks ares struggling and would need more time to enable them meet the new capital requirement.
“We think that the policy has to be revisited to give some banks who have issues more time to meet the requirementâ€, he said.
At the moment, there are about 141 licensed rural banks (140 – BoG data Dec. 2016) serving as primary funding source for tens of thousands of people across the country and extending the deadline beyond December this year might potentially save millions in deposits from local businesses - especially; poor, small and medium scale farmers in Ghana. Â
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