ARB Apex Bank urges customers to take advantage of its Link product

Badu (B/A), Dec. 27, GNA - ARB Apex Bank Limited has urged customers especially business entrepreneurs and traders to take advantage of its Apex Link product to save themselves from unpleasant situations such as armed robbery.

This was contained in a speech read on behalf of Mr Emmanuel Kwapong, the bank's Managing Director at the 15th annual general meeting of Baduman rural Bank at Badu in the Wenchi district of Brong-Ahafo. He noted that the product, introduced five months ago to facilitate the transfer of funds across the country through the rural banks had received tremendous patronage.

"I would urged everyone to take advantage of this product and also to save with the rural banks as the purpose of introducing the product was to deepen the national payment system.

Mr Kwapong said the rural banks with about 500 offices across the country were using the Apex Link service to fill a void in the national payment system.

He congratulated the board, management and staff of Baduman Rural Bank for being able to work successfully this year.

Mr Kwapong said the profits the bank made last year and other healthy indicators reflected in the accounts "are ample evidence of effective management of resources".

Mr Kwapong said as part of efforts to enhance the operations of rural banks, ARB Apex Bank had placed greater emphasis on technical training to equip staff with the required skills for effective service delivery.

Mr Kwapong said much more attention will be given to the training micro finance methodologies to enhance the operations of small-scale customers.

He said that would enable the rural banks to fulfil their mandate of effectively assisting communities in which they operated and to support the government's poverty reduction programme.

Mr Francis Twumasi, Chairman of the board of directors of the bank, in a report said the financial institution ended the year 2002 with a profit of 349,152.596 as compared to 175,270,314 in 2001.

Total deposits shot up from 3.05 billion cedis in 2001 to 5.43 billion cedis in 2002, showing an increase of 78 per cent, while the bank's capital base increased from 579.8 million cedis in 2001 to 773.6 million cedis, showing percentage increase of 33 per cent.

The board chairman said loans and advances granted increased from 2.95 billion cedis to 3.54 billion cedis, showing a percentage increase of 20 per cent.

Mr Twumasi noted that out of the total loans of 3,536,265,078 cedis granted to beneficiaries in various sectors including agriculture, cottage industry, transport, trading, education and health, 1,005,890,078 cedis were yet to be repaid.

He announced that the bank had already taken legal action against many of the defaulting customers and appealed to other defaulters to pay promptly to increase the cash flow of the bank so that other customers could benefit.

Certificates were presented to five best customers and long service certificates to six staff and members of the board.