Ghana Cedis
The Lower Pra Rural Bank Limited made a net profit-before-tax of GH¢1,219,494.00 as at December 31, 2011, compared to GH¢828,232 recorded in 2010, representing an increase of 47 per cent.
The bank’s total deposits also increased from GH¢18 million in 2010 to GH¢28 million in 2011, representing an increase of 56 per cent.
The rural bank also recorded a total investment in treasury bills of GH¢10.6 million over the period compared to GH¢6.9 million in 2010, representing an increase of 54 per cent.
Nathaniel Arthur, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, made these known at the 24th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the shareholders of the Lower Pra Rural Bank.
He said over the past 29 years, the bank has provided banking services to communities such as Abaodze, Daboase, Kojokrom, Essikadu, Effiakuma, Kwesimitsim, Anaji, Mpohor, Axim and Nkroful.
He revealed that the bank offered variety of customer deposit accounts notably, Savings, Current and Call Accounts, Fixed Deposit, Negotiable Certificate of Deposit, Bonus Savings, “Epo Nworaba”, “Kese Wo Kan”, “Ebusua Mfre Yie” and “Gyedzi”.
Mr. Arthur further said the bank offered advances to its numerous customers in the form of sundry loans, group loans, loans to salaried workers, overdrafts, consumer goods, vehicle and building loans.
“Total advances disbursed under our lending programme in 2011 was GH¢15 million as against GH¢10 million in 2010 representing an increase of 50 per cent”, he mentioned.
The board chairman indicated that the bank introduced the traditional “susu” scheme to assist people living within the bank’s catchment area to enable them solicit loans at a reasonable interest rate.
A greater challenge faced by the bank’s management was competition from other banks, but in all Lower Pra bank has strategically repositioned itself to compete favourably.
In an address read on his behalf, Kwaku Ababio, Manager, ARB APEX Bank Limited, disclosed that the operations of 130 rural banks with 600 branches or agencies have so far been automated under the ARB Apex Bank’s computerization programme and that all the banks were running on the latest version of the e-Merge software known as T24.
Franklin Belnye, Head of Banking Supervision Department of Bank of Ghana, appealed to the management and staff of Lower Pra Bank to continue to work together as a team in order to move the bank to further heights.
From Emmanuel Opoku, Takoradi
