The Asante Akyem Rural Bank headquartered at Juansa in the Konongo Municipality made giant strides during the 2020 financial year, according to the bank’s financial indicators.
The bank’s deposit grew from 45.88 million in 2019 to 62.38 million in 2020, representing an increase of 35.96 per cent.
Investment of the bank also saw an increase from 25.13 million in 2019 to 36.83 million in 2020, representing an increase of 46.56 per cent while total assets grew from 56.15 million in 2019 to 73.29 million, representing a 30.53 per cent increase.
The bank on the other hand could only take in a profit before tax of GHS 290.430 million in 2020 as against the GHS 262,762 in 2019, representing an increase of 10.53 per cent.
The Board Chairman of the Bank, Prof. Rexford Assasie Oppong, attributed the Bank’s inability to make more profit to a multiplicity of factors, including the COVID-19 pandemic which adversely affected the businesses of its clients during the financial year.
He was very upbeat that, with the current state of affairs in the country and the rest of the world, the Bank stood the chance of improving its profit margin drastically.
Prof. Assasie Oppong lauded the board and management of the bank for their dedication and hard work leading to the attainment of such a feat, adding that there was the need for all to work extra hard to sustain the gains made over the period and make it even better.
The Board Chairman announced that the bank spent a total of GHS43,050 on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to improve the lives of people in its operational area.
He mentioned some of the areas the CRS went to as the provision of 170 wellington boots, 75 spraying machines and four boxes of cutlasses to support last year’s National Farmers’ Day.
Other areas the bank also supported were the provision of 17 Veronica buckets, 100 gallons of sanitisers and support to the Otumfuo Education Foundation among others.
Mr Alex Awuah, Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank Ltd, in an address read for him, lauded the management and board of the Asante Akyem Rural Bank for the feat chalked during the financial year.
He explained that now that businesses were picking up after the COVID-19 pandemic caused many businesses to slow down, he was upbeat that the Bank’s gains could grow drastically.
The Managing Director charged the Bank to concentrate its effort on the development of the small and medium enterprises segment since that was where their strength was.
He explained further that concentrating on the small and medium businesses financing held a huge potential to boost their operations.
Mr Awuah cautioned all Community and Rural Banks in the country to desist from venturing into high-risk businesses since such ‘too good to be true investment’ often had a high potential of locking up all their assets in non-recoverable investment portfolios.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Bank, Mr Attah Gyamfi, responding to questions during the AGM, announced plans by the management and the board of the bank to design new products to meet the current needs of the shareholders and other customers of the bank.
He assured the customers and shareholders of management and board to work extra hard to get the best for the good of all who have invested in the bank and also protect the investment of its customers and shareholders.
The Bank could however not pay dividends to its shareholders for the year under review due to a directive by the Bank of Ghana to all Rural and Community Banks not to pay a dividend for the year under review due to the current state of business transactions in the country
SOURCE: Nii Otu Dadeban Ankrah
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