False social media messages about Rural Banks will hurt financial sector – Dep Apex Bank MD

The Deputy Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank, Alex Awuah has cautioned individuals responsible for spreading false messages about the state of Rural and Community Banks in the country, to desist from their actions, since they can negatively affect that segment of the financial system.

His comments follow a recent call by the Bank of Ghana for the general public to disregard some malicious messages circulating on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook about Rural and Community Banks.

Commenting on the development to Citi FM, the Deputy Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank, Alex Awuah, warned that such messages can harm the financial sector.

“We urge all our customers to exercise some restraint, but we also want to put out a word of caution to those sharing malicious messages. Their actions are hurting the entire financial system and that is not going help the country as a whole.”

Mr. Awuah finally assured the general public of the strength of Rural Banks across the country.

“In the particular case of the Rural Banks, they are very strong. Only a few banks have some challenges, but these challenges are under control and we hope that as part of BoG’s efforts all these issues will be addressed,” he added.

Keep doing business with rural banks : BoG to Ghanaians

The Bank of Ghana, BoG has refuted social media reports that its intended clean-up of the rural and community banks sector will cause depositors to lose their funds.

In a statement, the central bank said its attention “has been drawn to malicious messages circulating on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook that an intended ‘clean up’ of the Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) sub-sector would negatively affect depositors fund with RCBs, urging them to move their funds to other institutions”.

“For the avoidance of doubt”, the statement noted, “the clean-up exercise is only directed at insolvent and illiquid financial institutions which are not able to meet depositor withdrawals”.

The exercise is to enable depositors to have access to their funds, the bank added, and urged the “general public and customers to continue to do business with the RCBs that are solvent, liquid and strong”.

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