THE Unity Rural Bank at Ziope, the sole banking institution in the Adaklu-Anyigbe District in the Volta Region, declared profit after tax of GH¢167,992 last year as against GH¢99,614 it made in 2008.
The asset base of the bank also grew from GH¢2,954,583 in 2008 to GH¢4,266,689 in 2009.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, Togbe Binah Lawluvi VI announced this at the 15th annual general meeting (AGM) of shareholders of the bank at Ziope last weekend.
He disclosed that the directors had proposed a dividend of GH¢0.016 per share totalling GH61,191 to be paid to shareholders, rated as a yield per share of 32 per cent, which is far in excess of the interest on treasury bills of the Government of Ghana.
Togbe Lawluvi said the growing profit and interest margins of the bank should encourage more investments in the bank.
He, however, stated that the achievements were against new challenges in the banking sector where the influx of banks and other financial institutions had created more floating customers with no loyalty into the system.
Togbe Lawluvi said the deposits of floating customers were highly unstable and that credit extended to them became extremely difficult to recover.
The board chairman underscored the need for capitalisation to enable the bank to absorb more risks and underwrite more businesses, adding that as an emerging oil economy, business opportunities were likely to increase and it would take higher capital levels to do such businesses.
He also said if the bank was able to increase stated capital to GH¢1,000,000 by the close of 2011, it might be spared regulatory sanctions and the necessity to merge with or to be acquired by any rural or community bank.
The manager in charge of risk and business development of the ARB Apex Bank Limited, Mr Newton S. Mati, said notwithstanding the achievements, rural banks still had a lot more to do in respect of organisational and operational restructuring, especially in the area of migration from manual operations to embracing Information and Communication Technology (ICT).
He said effective deposit mobilisation and credit administration, cost control and reduction were salient to meet the challenges of the changing competitive and turbulent business environment.
Mr Mati advised rural and community banks to consider setting up desks on ICT, share registry management, accounts and transactions reconciliation, internal audit, research and marketing as well as administration.
He stated that those units would further strengthen the rural banking system and enhance public confidence in their operations.
Mr Mati disclosed that the ARB Apex Bank would soon handle an insurance business for the rural banks.
On the proposed merger of rural banks, he said two applications had been received from the Western and Central Regions, explaining that the merger concept was aimed at fighting the competition and improving on service delivery in view of capital constraints in the financial market. The Adaklu-Anyigbe District Chief Executive, Mr Michael Kobla Adjaho commended the bank for playing a utility role in the provision of banking services to a typical rural setting.
He urged all beneficiaries of the bank to endeavour to be faithful by paying back their loans to enable it to expand its services.
No comments:
Post a Comment