Juaben Rural Bank Limited at Juaben in the Ejisu - Juaben Municipality of Ashanti Region has recorded a satisfactory operational performance in the 2015 year under review.

The Board and Management of Bank consider that the current banking environment is becoming more competitive and more aggressive than ever before as well as becoming more ICT based and consequently the increasing evolvement of e-banking.

Juaben Rural Bank is currently leveraging the available ICT platform to roll out a number electronic products such as e-susu, e-cash, internet banking, telephone and mobile money banking, among others that have become the driving force in the banking industry.

Resulting from these developments and with the assistance of the Bank’s ICT Committee, the Bank has now gone branchless (WAN) where customers can transact business at any branch of the Bank. The SMS alert service has also been added to the bank’s wide range of services.

The Chairman of the Board of Directors Mr Kwabena Asante Krobea a veteran legal practitioner announced these and more at the Bank’s 31st Annual General shareholders’ meeting held last Saturday at Juaben in Ashanti.

According to him, the Bank registered a very satisfactory performance in almost all the performance indicators in spite of the major economic challenges posed by heightened local competition as well as the many negative effects on the operations of the Bank.

He mentioned that the energy crises in the country, the unstable nature of the economy and high cost of business operations all impacted negatively on the income of households and businesses. These negatively affected the profit of the Bank for the year 2015.

In spite of the challenges mentioned, the Bank performed satisfactorily well during the 2015 year under review as shown in the table.

Arising from the year’s performance, the Directors of the Bank have recommended a dividend payment of GH¢0.5p per share amounting to GH¢546,571.00. for the year ended 31st December 2015.

The Bank continues to be alive to its corporate social responsibilities. In the year under review, the Bank made a total donation of GH?64,505.00 to support education, health, sanitation, agriculture including farmers’ awards and other areas of need in and around the Bank’s catchment area.

The General Manager of the Bank, Kwabena Agyei – Poku in an interview said Management would continue to seek ways of strengthening and developing the Banks’ operations to maintain the confidence that their numerous customers and shareholders have in the Bank. “We will also intensify loan recovery, deposit mobilization, internal controls and maintain quality assets to increase profitability”, he stressed.

He mentioned that investments would be diversified to ensure safety and to utilize returns on assets and shareholders’ funds. Mr Agyei- Poku indicated that in spite of the competition in the banking industry with its numerous challenges, Juaben Rural Bank will continue to support its customers within its catchment areas to improve upon their living conditions.

The Board Chairman in his concluding remarks acknowledged the commitment of the Board, Management and staff to the objectives of the Bank, recounting that their individual and collective efforts have culminated in the significant improvements of the Bank’s operational results for the year 2015.