New Juaben Municipal Teachers Savings Association makes modest gains

Koforidua, Dec. 20, GNA- The New Juaben Municipal Teachers Savings Association has, as at June 30 this year, invested a total amount of GH¢ 338,305.64 in 12 companies listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange. The companies included Aluworks Ghana Limited, Benso Oil Palm Plantations, CAL Bank Ghana Limited, Cocoa Processing Company Limited, Ecobank Ghana Limited, Enterprise Insurance Company Limited and Ecobank Transnational Incorporated. Others were Ghana Commercial Bank Limited, Ghana Oil Company Limited, Standard Chartered Bank, SIC Insurance Company Limited and SSB-SG-SSB Bank Limited. Mr. Israel Benjamin Lassey, Chairman of the Board of Directors, announced this at the Sixth Annual General Meeting of the Association in Koforidua on Friday.

He said the investment on the Stock Exchange had appreciated to GH¢ 548,336.42, giving them an unrealized capital gain of GH¢ 210, 030.78. Mr Lassey informed members that dividend for the financial years ending 31 December, 2006 and 2007 were about GH¢ 9600.08 and GH¢ 12500.00 before tax respectively. He said the Board had decided to pay a dividend of seventy-five Ghana pesewas per share to shareholders, which amounted to GH14, 362.50 for the year under review out of the dividend earned from the Ghana Stock Exchange. Mr Lassey said the Migration from the Integrated Personal Payroll Database (IPPD) one to that of the IPPD two completely affected all Credit Unions, which operated through the Controller and Accountant General's Department.

He explained that from October 2006 when the IPPD two Database systems were introduced, all loan deductions grinded to a halt. "The management of New Juaben Municipal Teachers Savings Association was only able to re-activate these loans deductions with effect from July 2007, which was nine long months of no loan recovery being effected". He said, that situation had diluted the profit made, resulting in a loss to the association since that had automatically reduced the interest rates charged for the various repayment periods indicated by members who took the loans. Mr. Lassey said members who resided outside New Juaben and draw their salaries there had an outstanding loan balance of GH¢ 77278.73 against them. He said that figure still remained outstanding since no deductions could be effected due to the nature of the IPPD two database systems, which made it impossible to deduct.

Mr Lassey said, to avert the imminent collapse of the scheme, the Board had decided to control granting of loans and rather investing funds in the shares of stocks listed on the Ghana Stock Exchange as well as buying plots to members for housing purposes. Mr Nathaniel Apronti, Eastern Regional Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), in an address read on his behalf, appealed to members of the association to increase their contributions to be able to get more money to borrow. He advised them to pay back their loans on time so that the association would not collapse. Mr Apronti urged them to take loans to invest in areas that would improve their lot. 20 Dec. 08