Nsoatreman Rural Bank to disburse GHc17m to 4,000 micro businesses

The Nsoatreman Rural Bank Limited at Nsoatre in the Sunyani-West district of Brong Ahafo Region has budgeted to increase its operational targets in 2018 as compared to last year’s performance barometers.

The upward revision of performance targets is being motivated by gradual recovery of the economy from its troubles. The bank is of the firm belief that the economy will continue to ‘pick up its pieces’ so as to strengthen the banking space by creating more opportunities to inspire growth.

To this end, the bank has revised its books in anticipation of receiving between GH¢19million to GH¢20million total deposits by end of the 2018 financial year. The target shows a slight increase over the 2017 accounted total deposits of GH¢16million.

The General Manager of the bank, Mrs. Agnes Grimmon Intsiful who disclosed this to B&FT in an interview said: “With a robust marketing strategy and introduction of more e-banking services, being administered by highly motivated staff to broaden the bank’s customer base, there is light at the end of the tunnel”.

As of December 31, 2017, Nsoatreman Rural Bank had a customer base of 81,573. Plans are advanced for the bank to open two more branches and expand its catchment base to stimulate and sustain growth, she stated. The bank already has branches in Sunyani, Techiman, Chiraa, Yamfo and Jinijini.

“We will expand mobile money (MoMo) service to all our branches; currently, only two of our branches run MoMo. The bank will rope-in more educational institutions onto the e-zwich payment system.”

The bank has budgeted GH¢17million for loans and advances in the year under consideration. Over 4,000 people, mainly micro business operators (small-scale farmers, petty traders and artisans) and monthly salary workers, are expected to benefit. The General Manager indicated that the bank has a strong competitive edge in the microfinance sector, hence the prioritisation.

The bank has allocated GH¢9million for investments, largely in government Treasuries. This is GH¢3million more than 2017’s investment. Mrs. Intsiful said though the Treasury bill rate has been reducing, it will preferably invest more in them (T-bills) because they are risk-free. These and many other strategies are expected to yield the bank a profit of GH¢900,000 in 2018.