The Jomoro Rural Bank has exceeded the GH¢1,000,000.00 minimum capital requirement as the stated capital of the bank stood at GH¢1,038,268.00 as at the end of December 2018.
The bank was able to reach the threshold since the Board members made it compulsory for all Directors, Management and Staff to purchase some fixed amount of shares every month.
As part of the strategy, the bank has also proposed that the minimum number of shares for aspiring directors be pegged at GH¢10,000.00 with those of their nominators and seconders being GH¢4,000.00.
Chairman of the Board of Directors, Professor Cosmos Cobbold announced this when he delivering an annual report and financial statements of the year ended December 31, 2018 during the 22nd annual general meeting of shareholders of the bank at Tikobo No.1 in the Western Region.
He said profit before tax reduced by 42.87 per cent from GH¢601,006.00 in 2017 to GH¢343, 323.00 in 2018 largely on account of an increase in requirement provisions from GH¢120, 000.00 in 2017 to GH¢490,557.00 in 2018 which marked the end of the legacy bad debt provisions that have been staggered over the years.
Prof. Cobbold said the bank recorded moderate growth in its key performance indicators with the exception of profit before and after tax.
Total loans disbursed to small and medium scale enterprises, farmers and salaried workers amounted to GH¢10,703,169.00 as compared to GH¢9,044,714.00 in 2017 with 10.92 per cent increase in total income from GH¢4,627.965.00 in 2017 to GH¢5,133,598.42 in 2018.
Total expenditure also increased from GH¢4,026,959.00 in 2017 to GH¢4,710,275.13 in 2018 showing an increase of 14.5 per cent which resulted in profit before tax decreasing by 42.87 per cent from GH¢601,006.00 in 2017 to GH¢343, 323.00 in 2018.
The Board recommended that dividends be converted to bonus shares for members and urged shareholders to take keen interests in their investments by going to any of their branches to update their records and take statements.
Prof. Cobbold encouraged existing and potential customers to continue to do business with the bank and dispel the rumours that Bank of Ghana was going to close down rural banks adding that the Bank of Ghana and ARB Apex Bank were poised to reposition the rural and community banking sector to enable them better support rural economic development.
He was highly elated to announce that the Jomoro Rural Bank Ltd. was among the banks that were given a clean bill of health to sign on to the Ghana Deposit Protection Scheme to protect depositor’s interest in the event of bank failure.
On corporate social responsibility, the bank afforded students from various tertiary institutions in the country, the opportunity to undertake their internship and spent a total amount of GH¢6,197.00 in the areas of education, health, sports and culture. GNA
