Kwamanman Rural Bank makes giant strides

Kwamang (Ash), Nov 30, GNA - The Kwamanman Rural Bank saw a strong growth last year, recording a pre-tax profit of GH¢218,862.00 Mr Newman Dapaah, Chairman of the Board of Directors, has said.

This represents 167.9 percentage rise of the previous year's figure of GH¢81,707.00.

Addressing the 16th annual general meeting of the shareholders at Kwaman in the Sekyere Central District, Mr Dapaah said deposits also shot up from GH¢4,032,287.00 to GH¢4,551, 987.00.

At the same time, the Bank's investment increased from GH¢1,000,000 in 2007 to GH¢1,260,000, while total assets grew by 14.5 per cent, from GH¢4,597,075, in 2007, to GH¢5,264, 134, in 2008.

Mr Dapaah said as part of efforts at supporting agriculture and agro-based production concerns, the bank has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a consortium of agricultural experts based at the Kwame Nkumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to pilot a project dubbed "Ghana Sustainable Competitive Cocoa Systems Project (GSCCSP)."

Under this, farmers are assisted not only to adopt improved cocoa=

farming technology but to replant old cocoa farms. He said in pursuit of this, inputs including fertilizers, chemica= ls and hybrid cocoa seedlings to the tune of GH¢49,484.34 had been supplie= d to them. Cash was also made available to the farmers for the maintenance of=

their cocoa farms, the Board Chairman said. He expressed disappointment with the failure of some of the beneficiary farmers to keep to the repayment schedule and said this was threatening to shoot down the lofty initiative Mr Dapaah encouraged the shareholders to do more to grow the equit= y of the bank by increasing their shares, noting that, the benefits from adequate capitalization are enormous.