Nyankomasi Ahenkro (C/R), Oct 13, GNA - Mr Robert Kutin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Nyankomasi Ahenkro Rural Bank, has appealed to cocoa farmers to patronise the Akuafo cheque to enable them to benefit from the payment of bonuses since the banks keep better records.

He advised cocoa farmers not to be enticed with cash by purchasing clerks since they could be deprive them of their bonuses through mistakes in recording their sales.

Mr Kutin, who made the appeal at the 19th Annual General Meeting of the Bank at Nyankomasi Ahenkro, said the bank issued only 1.4 billion cedis worth of Akuafo cheques to Purchasing Clerks for cocoa purchases last year.

The Board Chairman assured cocoa farmers of prompt payment for their Akuafo cheques.

He stated that the bank made a net profit of 194,907,819 cedis in 2004 as against 156,168,999 cedis in 2003 while its deposit base increased from 2,485,337,794 in 2003 to 4,459,437,565 cedis in 2004 representing an increase of 79.43 per cent. Mr Kutin said the Bank's total assets grew from 2,873,275,267 to 5,113,229,723 an increment of 77.96 per cent within the period while its investment was accounted for only 5.31 per cent growth from 1,850,316,493 cedis to 1,948,644,372 cedis.

Mr Kutin said the Bank's loans and overdrafts increased by 88 per cent from 377,985,774 cedis to 710,606,314 cedis in 2003 and 2004 respectively.

He described the share capital of 116,949,920 cedis of the Bank as woefully inadequate and appealed to the shareholders to increase their shares to enable the bank to meet the Bank of Ghana statutory requirement of 500 million cedis.

He said the Bank supported 589 customers with 967.7 million cedis micro finance to expand their ventures.

Mr Amos Yemoah, National Secretary of the Association of Rural Banks, said there was a programme to help banks to expand their operations since they were now performing creditably. He said the Association was producing newsletter and urged member banks to submit inputs.