Abokobi rural bank braces itself despite strides

Accra, Nov. 15, GNA - The Abokobi Area Rural bank Limited, one of the earliest established rural banks in Ghana, made 160 per cent in 2007 which enabled it to transfer GH¢95,000 to meet its minimum capital requirement.

The bank posted profit before tax of GH¢56,499 as against GH¢21,278 the previous year but was unable to pay dividends to shareholders because of the new Bank of Ghana requirement to increase stated capital to GH¢150,000.

Shareholders at the bank's 16th annual general meeting voted unanimously to transfer GH¢95,000 to the stated capital account but called on the board and management of the bank to introduce prudent measures in the coming year to ensure shareholder value. They said despite the bank's performance coupled with successes chalked in the area of strengthening its internal control measures, the board and management should do more to meet the growing challenges and competition from other banks.

Addressing the meeting, Mr Eric Osei-Bonsu, ARB Apex Bank Limited Managing Director in a speech read for him, lauded the Abokobi Area bank's performance and urged it to work hard to sustain the progress even in the face of competition and unfavourable economic indicators. He said the ARB Apex Efficient Monitoring Unit Composite rating as at June this year, placed the Abokobi Area bank 56th position among the 127 rural banks. "This performance was ranked satisfactory," he said. The MD again commended the bank for establishing an Internal Audit Unit, which he said had drastically reduced irregularities at the bank and urged it to further strengthen the internal control mechanisms to minimise risks and the incidence of fraud which had become the bane of RCBs.

Mr Osei-Bonsu told the bank to take advantage of the ARB Apex Bank's introduction of the Western Union Money Transfer System to claim its share of the market within its catchments. In addition, he said the Apex bank had taken the necessary steps to ensure the full participation of all RCBs in the new biometric Smartcard payment system called E-Zwich.

The Boards Chairman of the Abokobi Area bank, Mr Sam Clegg said due to the bank's impressive performance, the newly approved Managing Director of the Abokobi Area bank, Mrs Matilda Bruce-Arthur was selected on merit to participate in an international microfinance project in India and assured shareholders that the Board was considering the introduction of a microfinance scheme.

He announced plans to expand the bank's agencies to catch up with the growing banking challenges saying "the 'big' banks are fast infiltrating into our area and we need to be proactive and act." Mr Clegg saluted shareholders and said the bank had continued to grow with their support and added that prudent policies would be introduce to improve the bank's performance, service delivery and shareholder value.

He said the bank currently has over 3,000 shareholders with 10,000 customers and a total deposits of GH¢1,826,029 from 1,539,383 in 2006 representing an increase of 19 per cent. On the bank's scholarship scheme, he said it had lowered the aggregate pass mark from "six ones" to "seven ones" of the Basic Education Certificate Examination results to enable more people to benefit.