Public Agenda (Accra)
6 July 2009
Accra — The Toende Rural Bank Limited at Zebilla in the Bawku West District of the Upper East Region has made tremendous strides after bagging 568,730 Ghana cedis in profit in 2007 as against 12, 886 Ghana Cedis in 2008.
The Very Reverend Dr. Jacob Ayeebo, Board Chairman of the Bank stated this during the third Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Bank held in Zebilla at the weekend.
He indicated that the Bank made total deposits of 684,273 Ghana cedis in 2007 while it rose to 846,622 Ghana cedis in 2008 thereby making an interesting gain during the 2008 fiscal year.
He said loans and advances given out in 2008 stood at 120,913 as against 17,347 in 2007 and said this was as a result of the Bank of Ghana directives for the bank to give out its own loans.
During the period under review, the Board Chairman, noted that the bank registered a stupendous increase of assets from 943,506 Ghana Cedis to 1,199, 273 Ghana cedis respectively.
Rev. Dr. Ayeebo said due to the tremendous performance of the bank, the Association of Rural Bank (ARB) rated it as the seventh out of the 124 Rural Banks in the country. "This is creditable achievement given the fact that the bank is only five years old in contrast to other rural banks that are well over twenty years."
He emphasized that the bank had not shirk its social responsibilities and so had contributed to the Bawku Naba Educational Endowment Fund and the Toende Unity Football Club to promote education and sports in the area.
The Board Chairman mentioned some of the challenges facing the bank as the low patronage of shares by shareholders, small banking space, refusal by some workers in the District to use the Bank for their salaries, and computerization of the bank among others.
Speaking on the future plans of the Bank, the Board Chairman announced that the Board had decided that a new bank building should be constructed with all the modern facilities put in place to promote efficient banking.
He sated that the Board had also proposed that the net profit made by the Bank for the 2008 which was meant for shareholders be converted into shares to enable the bank to meet its share capital of 150,000 Ghana cedis as minimum requirement from the BOG.
Rev. Dr Ayeebo commended the staff of the bank and organizations including APEX Bank, Association of Northern Chapter of Rural Banks, NORTHFIN among others for supporting the bank in diverse ways.
The Upper East Regional Manger of APEX Bank, Mr. Reuben Adamtey who read a speech on behalf of the Managing Director of APEX Bank, Mr. Eric Osei Bonsu, commended the Toende Rural Bank for its outstanding performance. He however cautioned the management of the bank to put various measures in place to be able to stand the test of time.
He advised the management of the bank to be very vigilant to prevent unscrupulous people who of late had been engaging in money laundering, counterfeiting notes, issuing of dud cheques, withdrawal of huge sums of money from bank without repaying.
Accounting procedure and strengthening the internal control mechanisms, he said, must be strictly adhered to, to reduce the incidence of fraud and stressed the need for staff training and motivation to encourage them to give off their best.
The Bawku West District Chief Executive, Mr. Adam Imoro Anaba, congratulated the Bank for contributing to the socio-economic development of the District and appealed to them to grant loans and other credit schemes such as hire purchases to attract salary workers to join the bank.
He entreated the people in the District especially Chiefs to see the bank as a community's property and cultivate the habit of saving, stressing that chiefs should endaevour to open accounts using the skin name and appealed to workers in the district to root their salaries through the bank to enable it grow. GNA
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