Business

Nkoranman Rural Bank makes giant strides

The Nkoranman Rural Bank at Seikwa in the Tain District of the Bono Region has met the GH¢1 million minimum capital requirement by the Bank of Ghana (BoG).

The Central Bank has ordered all the 144 Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) in the country to raise a minimum capital of GH¢1 million, latest by February 2020.

At the close of the 2018 financial year the stated capital of Nkoranman Rural Bank stood at GH¢1,018,299 as compared to GH¢554,091 in 2017, representing a significant increase of 83.78 per cent over the previous year.

The Board Chair of the bank, Victoria Konadu, who announced this at the 22nd annual general meeting of shareholders, held at Seikwa urged them to increase their holdings to boost the capital base of the bank, adding that it would help the bank to withstand any future capital increment by the regulator.

On the performance of the bank during the year under review, Ms Konadu said the bank posted a profit before tax increase of GH¢251,757 in 2018 as against GH¢168,867 recorded in 2017.

Total assets of the bank was pegged at GH¢8,722, 891, growing by 12.35 per cent from GH¢7,763,733 in the previous year.

Total deposits on the other hand, went up from GH¢6,878,355 to GH¢7,284,109, indicating a marginal growth of 5.90 per cent, she added.

Ms Konadu indicated that the bank would adopt new strategies to improve deposit mobilisation so as to enhance its performance in the years ahead.

The Board Chair said the bank in 2018 made investments to the tune of GH¢2,687,280, increasing by 12.24 per cent from GH¢2,394,300 while the sum of loans and advances was GH¢3,985,470 as against GH¢3,565,791 in the previous year. 

Ms Konadu noted that with intense competition in the banking space, coupled with mixed marco environmental factors, Nkoranman Rural Bank had crafted strategies to deal with unforeseen operational challenges.

She stated that the bank would support cashew and cocoa farmers within its catchment area and also make funds available to SMEs for growth and development to grow the local economy.

In a speech read for him, the Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank, Kojo Mattah, said notwithstanding  the recent banking sector challenges, the rural banking sub-sector had showed high level of resilience as many RCBs have been performing creditably well.

He said the Apex Bank was set to introduce many projects to improve the rural banking business and help diversify the income streams of RCBs.

Key among the projects he mentioned, were the introduction of Agency Banking module to help customers access a myriad of banking services without walking into banking halls.

FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, SEIKWA

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