Asante-Akyem Rural Bank opens Juaso agency building
Continuous annual growth has helped the Asante-Akyem Rural Bank to achieve a share capital of GH¢400, 000.00, which exceeds the minimum share capital of GH¢150, 000.00 required by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).
For its good annual performance, the rural bank, established in 1984 with its headquarters at Juansa, was admitted to the Club 100 in 2011.
This was disclosed at the weekend at Juaso by the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, Mr Francis Opuni-Sekyere, at the opening of the premises for the Juaso agency of the bank, which was opened in 1998.
According to the chairman, the bank has a deposit base of GHc15.4 million and a net worth of GH¢ 2.9 million.
He said it granted loans amounting to GH¢ 9.8 million whilst the total assets of the bank was GH¢ 20.1 million as at the end of 2012.
The District Chief Executive (DCE) for Asante-Akim South, Mr Degraft Forkuo, who was the Special Guest of Honour at the function, commended the bank for its pragmatic strategies that had made the bank one of the best rural banks in the country.
He said he had introduced over 1000 workers of Zoomlion under the Youth Employment programme to save with the bank.
Mr Forkuo said the bank granted an amount of GH¢30,000 as a start-up to 28 trainees who completed the Business Advisory Centre (BAC) under the Rural Enterprise Project.
He said it also donated 'T' shirts, wellington boots, machetes and other items to support the District's Annual Farmers Day celebration.
Mr Forkuo advised those who had been granted loans by the bank to repay on time in order for their others to also benefit, and stressed that it would not be in the interest of defaulters if the bank adopted punitive measures to retrieve the unpaid monies.
The Ashanti Regional Manager of the ARB Apex Bank, Mr George Kwaku Anno, commended the bank for its wonderful performance.
He urged the management to sustain the spirited performance in order to win more customers to enable it to increase its capital base.
The chairman for the occasion, the Asante-Akim South District Director of Education, Mr Frank Yaw Musah, asked the bank to come with products that would help ease the financial burden of the people in the area.
By Nana Yaw Barimah