DCE appeals to Bank of Ghana to support rural banks

Asuom, Sept 17, GNA - Mr Yaw Boakye-Yiadom, Kwaebibirem District Chief Executive, has appealed to the Bank of Ghana to continue to offer the requisite technical and managerial expertise to rural banks. He said this during the 18th Annual General Meeting of the Kwaebibirem Rural Bank in a speech read on his behalf.

Mr Boakye-Yiadom said such assistance would enable the rural banks to continue to deliver satisfactory services to their customers. He called on the banks to introduce modern and more humane management practices into their operations and at the same time draw up regular training programmes for their staff to equip them with modern trends of banking.

The Deputy Chief Manager of the Bank of Ghana, Mr Samuel T. Essel, said the performance of most rural banks has been encouraging since they have consistently mobilised impressive amounts of deposits. Mr Essel said as at the end of June the asset base of rural banks nation-wide was 976.895 billion cedis whilst the deposits mobilised stood at 739.176 billion cedis.

Credits channelled into rural banks nation-wide, he said, also stood at 273.909 billion cedis within the same period. These impressive results, Mr Essel said, are indications of the growing public confidence in the rural banking system.

Mr Essel however, expressed regret that contrary to the central bank's directives some rural banks are not making serious efforts to increase their stated capital to the required minimum capital base of 100 million cedis.

He said as at the end of June only 68 out of the 115 rural banks had complied with the directives and advised those which had defaulted to seek the consent of shareholders to suspend the payment of dividends until they are able to raise their capital base to the required level. Mr Essel commended the Kwaebibirem Rural Bank for being classified amongst the satisfactory banks with a capital adequacy ratio of 27.35 per cent based on the banking industry report on rural banks as at the end of June.

Presenting the annual report and financial statement for the year ended December 31, 2002 Mr Kwaku Aseidu Amponsah, Vice Chairman of the Bank's Board of Directors said, deposits rose appreciably from 2,508,081,000 cedis in 2001 to 3,733,388,000 in 2002, an increase of about 49 per cent.

Assets on the other hand within the same period shot up from 2,990,953,000 cedis to 4,832,405,000 cedis.

Mr Amponsah said the bank continued to discharge its social responsibilities to communities in its catchment area.

He said during the year under review total donations for development projects rose from 29,838,000 cedis to 32,580,000 cedis. The Vice Chairman said as part plans to expand the operations of the bank, a mobilisation centre that was gradually picking up was opened at Pramkese in the district.

He said plans are being put in place to open an agency at Osenase in the West Akim District in the future.