Rural Banking Special Report 2024: Mumuadu Rural Bank PLC.: Repositioning for government’s financial inclusion agenda

With an ever-growing customer acceptance and efficient customer service delivery in rural banking services, Mumuadu Rural Bank PLC (MRB) has gained an enviable reputation as one of the most efficient providers of banking services in its catchment area. The bank was established in 1982 at Osino in the Fanteakwa South District of the Eastern Region.

MRB seeks to bring banking services to the door-steps of its customers in its catchment area and the entire country as a whole. The bank remains poised to always facilitating the creation of opportunities for the growth of small and medium business enterprises. The bank’s headquarters is located at Osino, off the Accra-Kumasi Highway.

Branch network

Mumuadu Rural Bank PLC. currently has eight branches located at Osino, Begoro, Kyebi, Koforidua, Suhum, Nkawkaw, New Abirem and Nsawam. The bank also has a strong presence in areas such as Anyinam, Kwaabeng, Bunso, Osiem, Tafo, Apedwa and a countless number of small towns and villages. It has penetrated these areas with its micro-operations through the mobilisation of micro deposits and advancement of micro-credits.

A unique feature of the micro-operations in these communities is business engagement with identifiable groups such as cooperatives, Community Support Agriculture systems (CSAs), community welfare schemes, various artisan unions, among others. Micro-credits also thrive on the group guarantee system, where group members mutually and severally guarantee one another’s loan.

Our target market

The bank’s business activities cut across all sectors of the economy – from individuals and promising enterprises to large-scale and high turnover entities. Public sector institutions and employees also have their special place in the bank’s operations. MRB has a special interest in the growth of the micro small and medium enterprise (MSME) sub-sector of the economy. The sub-sector presents a huge potential for growth and this explains the bank’s increasing participation in this space.

The mobilisation of deposits, granting of micro-credits, financial advisory services, cooporative and association financing, among others, are the various services that are targeted in this sub-sector. The customer-mix of the sector include, but are not limited to, petty traders, artisans, micro enterprises, farmers, cooperatives, associations, unions and shop owners. Over the years, the bank has helped with the growth of these businesses through the provision of timeous credit facilities.

Achieving financial inclusion  

The bank, through its business strategy and operational procedures, has indirectly helped improve financial inclusion of the unbanked in its catchment area and beyond.

The penetration of various communities with micro activities as a sustainable way of financing rural enterprises and mobilising rural savings has drawn huge numbers of the unbanked into the financial inclusion net.

The introduction of new products – such as ‘Bronya Bosea’ (Christmas loan for traders), ‘Mmofra Daakye’ Account (an account purposely to fund the education of school-going children) and targeting a wider range of participants in the agric value chain – has been found to resonate well with the financial aspirations of these constituency of the unbanked.

The bank has elevated its relationship with its customers and the general public by offering them convenience, limitless accessibility to cash and comfortability in transactions at a negligible cost through the deployment of a number of electronic banking platforms.

A huge number of customers have been hopped onto the USSD and other E-Banking platforms, resulting in an increased activities on the accounts of customers and saving them incidental costs hitherto associated with undertaking their transactions.

This has had far-reaching effect on financial inclusion. The bank is in position to further increase financial inclusion with the coming on board of Agency Banking for Rural and Community Banks (RCBs). This will help the bank to reach new markets and also develop existing ones.

Our services

Mumuadu Rural Bank has always remained committed to enhancing the bank-customer relationship as a way of ensuring continuity of business with its teaming customers. Through the deployment of robust means of researching into customer needs and collecting feedback, the bank has been able to stay at the forefront of providing solutions to customer needs. The bank’s services include, but not limited to, the following:

24/7 ATM services                              Cash remittance services                    Micro-finance

Mobile money services                       Bulk cash lifting services                     Cheque clearing

Institutional salary processing            Commercial lending                           Overdraft services

Financial advisory services                 Key account management                  Prestigious banking

Our products

Accounts                                  Loans                   E-products (services)

Savings Account                      MSE Loans                               E-Zwich

Current Account                      Group Loans                            Western Union

Susu Savings Account              Salary Loans                            Unity Link

Mmofra Daakye Account        Commercial Loans                  GhanaPay

Seasonal Loans                        Mobile Money

Bronya Bosea (Loan)               ITRANS

Abraboanyease Loan              24/7 ATM

Controller Loan

Investments                 Overdrafts                   Insurance policies

Fixed Deposit                           Business Overdrafts                General Insurance Policies

MRB Shares                             Salary Overdrafts                    Life Insurance Policies

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)

As a corporative citizen, MRB has immensely contributed to the socio-economic development of the communities in the bank’s catchment area. The bank’s CSR activities cut across provision of real-time support in infrastructure development, donations to key state agencies, providing educational support to educational institutions and scholarships to brilliant but needy students, embarking on social projects to solve lingering social challenges.

Notable of these CSR activities in the recent past include the roofing of Roman Catholic Primary School building at Osino, support for construction of an office for the Ghana National Fire Service at Atiwa East District, cash donations to Ghana Education Service (GES), donation to Salvation Army Clinics at Osino and Begoro, among others.

Navigating through the general economic downturn

The resilience of the bank was put to the test in the wake of the global pandemic and its associated general economic downturn that brought havoc to actors in the financial sector.

The downturn resulted in the government’s Domestic Debt Exchange Programme (DDEP), which saw the differed payments of bonds and penultimate ‘haircuts’ on bondholders. The spillover of the programme was the slight dip in the profitability of the bank for the 2022 financial year, albeit all other indicators being in good health.

The bank was able to turn the corner quickly by embarking on an aggressive deposit mobilisation drive and developing new markets through the introduction of new products and reviewing the features of some of the existing products to be able to adequately serve these markets equitably. The bank is now in pole position to post a higher performance in all of its indicators.

Strategic direction

In the ensuing years, the bank will continue to focus a lot of its efforts in delivering real value to its customers and shareholders. There will be continuous research into the needs of the markets to acquaint ourselves with the market dynamics and respond appropriately.

A lot of planning will go into the development of new markets and the designing of products to adequately serve these markets. Customer-centric activities of quality customer service delivery and customer relationship management will continue to take centre-stage in the bank’s business endeavours. The desired results of all of these efforts are an enhanced performance of our business and increasing financial inclusion.

Awards and recognitions

• A member of the prestigious Ghana Club 100 Awards on five different occasions
• Ghana Business Awards
• Most Promising Bank in Credit Delivery at Ghana Credit Management Awards
• 2^nd Runner-up in CSR by Association of Rural Banks

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