Rain fed agricultural in Builsa, unattractive

Sandema (UE), Oct 6, GNA - Rain fed agriculture in the Builsa District of the Upper East Region has become a high-risk venture for investment, Mr Cletus Achaab, Board Chairman of the Builsa Community Bank (BUCOBANK), has said. He said the Bank's credit to agriculture had declined from about 142 million cedis in 2001 to about 44.7 million cedis in 2002. Mr Achaab attributed the down ward trend of the credit to unreliability of the rainfall, resulting in poor crop yield, hence farmers inability to repay loans.

The Board Chairman, who was speaking at the 5th Annual General Meeting of BUCOBANK at Sandema on Saturday, appealed to government and its development partners to construct more wells and small-scale irrigation dams to boost dry season farming. Mr Achaab said the Bank was collaborating efforts with government bodies such as the village infrastructure (VIP), Social Investment Fund (SIF), and the UNICEF to implement micro- credit schemes in the financial institution's catchment area. He said the Bank had disbursed more than six million cedis to some communities as part of its programme aimed at developing the area, despite a 30 percent fall in profit for 2002.

The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Mahami Salifu, asked the BUCOBANK to give loans to people in the tourism industry to enable them to provide facilities to boost the sector. The Regional Minister also urged the Bank to expand its scholarship scheme to cover more needy but brilliant students in the area.

The Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank, Mr Emmanuel K. Kwapong, appealed to shareholders of the Bank to increase their shareholding to enable it to expand its financial operations. He said the Apex Bank was established to provide banking and non-banking services to rural banks to facilitate their transactions. Mr Kwapong said, among other services, the Apex Bank was in the process of linking all rural and community financial institutions through a network to enhance information sharing and towards improved customer services.