Union Bank offers 20 JSS students scholasrship

Senya-Beraku(C/R), Nov. 8, GNA-The Union Rural Bank with its headquarters at Senya-Beraku in the Central Region, has offered three-year scholarship each to 20 brilliant but needy pupils selected from the various basic schools in Senya-Beraku Town, to pursue Junior Secondary School (JSS) education.

Mr. Charles Boadi, Supervising Manager of the Bank, disclosed this at a ceremony at which the Bank officially handed over a new 6,500-Kilowatt Honda Electricity Generator to management of the Senya-Beraku Community Health Centre. Mr. Michael Hayford, second Vice Chairman of the Bank's Board of Directors, performed the function which formed part of the activities marking this year's Rural Banking Week, on behalf of Mr. Kwesi Essel Koomson, Managing Director of the Union Rural Bank.

Mr. Boadi said the scholarship scheme would cost the bank more than 60 million cedis, adding that within the past 10 months, the bank had made donations totalling over 72 million cedis to organizations and institutions, including some students bodies in the area to support their social programmes.

He maintained that the donations were part of the Bank's social responsibilities to people living in its catchments area. The Supervising Manager said between January 2003 and October, 2006, the bank had disbursed over 12 billion cedis to more than 4,000 fishmongers, petty traders and other small-scale entrepreneurs operating in the Awutu-Effutu-Senya District under its Micro Financial Assistance Scheme.

Mr. Boadi said within the past Ten Months the bank had disbursed a total of 6.6 billion cedis to customers operating various businesses under the Micro Financial Assistance Scheme, stressing that the Board of Directors, Management and the entire workers of the bank were poised to provide the public the best of banking services.

He said the bank has started training some of the banking staff on computers and other systems designed for the implementation of a net-working system that would connect all the five branches of the bank to facilitate business transactions of its numerous customers early next year.

Speaking at the presentation ceremony, Mr. Michael Hayford, the Board second Vice-Chairman, advised traders, workers, churches and industrial concerns in the district to who have not established any business with the bank not to hesitate to do so.

Mr. Hayford said the bank has numerous financial prospects for individuals and companies wishing to transact business with it. Mr. Hayford expressed the hoped that the provision of the electricity generator would help solve the power problem facing the health facility as a result of the power sharing programme being implemented by the Volta River Authority.

He said the donation was in response to a passionate call made by officials of Senya Town Council recently, on behalf of the Health workers in the town.

He expressed the hope that state organizations, establishments, institutions, traders and workers, as well as more petty and big time traders in the district would take advantage of the Micro Credit facilities available at the bank to promote their businesses to create adequate employment opportunities for the jobless in the district.

Many parents of the beneficiary JSS students who have been offered scholarships by the bank contacted later after the presentation ceremony, praised Mr. Kwesi Essel Koomson, Managing Director of the URB, who is also a citizen of Senya-Beraku Town for his foresight in establishing the bank.

They prayed for God guidance and long life to enable him to make more meaningful contributions towards the development of the area. Earlier, three senior officers of the bank, Mr. Victor Asempah, Mr. Charles Owusu, and Mr. Emmanuel Quaye, had jointly led workers of the bank drawn from Winneba, Kasoa and Senya-Beraku branches in a four-hour clean-up exercise at the Snya-Beraku Community Health Centre to round off activities commemorating the rural banking week celebrations. They were assisted by a group of youth in the town to clear and burn refuse at a refuse dump near the Senya District Council Primary and Junior Secondary Schools.

Mr. Edward Acquah, Medicial Assistant In-Charge of Senya-Beraku Health Centre thanked directors and management of the bank for the gesture and promised that the generator would be properly maintained to prolong its life span.