THE Lower Manya Krobo, Upper Manya Krobo and Yilo Krobo districts, as well as some parts of the Asuogyaman District, constitute one big area in terms of land size and population.
These four political entities put together have an estimated population of 500,000, mostly people engaged in subsistence agriculture with small holdings.
A large segment of the population is also in the fishing industry, plying their vocation primarily on the Volta Lake while others engage in petty trading.
Despite the resourcefulness of the people in such vocations, they are unable to make any meaningful headway in terms of income generation.
The reason is that for some time now there had not been any banking institution that could offer the necessary financial assistance for such small-scale businesses, especially in agriculture, aquaculture and commerce.
As a result, businesses could not thrive and poverty was the order of the day with its attendant problems, notably the inability of most parents to cater for their children’s education.
To break the cycle of poverty in the area, the Association of Krobo Women in Accra came up with the idea of setting up a financial institution in the area to offer the required financial support for the people.
The bank, christened Manya Krobo Rural Bank with its headquarters at Odumase-Krobo, which started operations about 27 years ago, has, in line with its objectives, rendered tremendous assistance to the people in terms of loans. The beneficiaries are properly schooled in business management not only for the sustenance of such businesses, but also to enable them to pay back the loans in time for others to enjoy the facility.
One significant aspect of the operations of the bank is its ability to assist community projects with a number of donations, as well as providing scholarships for the education of brilliant, needy students in second-cycle, vocational and tertiary institutions in its catchment areas.
The bank, which has agencies at Somanya, Kpong and Akuse, has added another novelty to its operations with the introduction of a new package this year.
The package, known as a community-based micro finance scheme, makes it possible for any member of the community to access loans up to GH¢2,000 after the community leaders, namely, the chiefs, clergymen, assembly members or opinion leaders, had identified the prospective borrower as a member of the community and were prepared to hold brief for them.
This package, which has commenced in the Ashiyie community in the nearby Greater Accra Region, has been planned to cover other areas such as Adenta and Atomic Junction where a GH¢100,000 first-class banking hall with all the necessary facilities is being built.
According to the Managing Director of the bank, Mr Emmanuel Antwi, although the bank was primarily to serve the Krobo area, it had to extend its operations to some semi-rural/urban communities in Greater Accra due to four main reasons.
First, to provide banking facilities, which were not available at such places, to the people, especially micro-finance loans, to reduce poverty and offer salary credits and other financial packages to workers.
Those initiatives, Mr Antwi said, would create a corporate image for the bank to accelerate its growth to the status of a full-fledged universal bank to generate funds to support people and communities in the catchment areas, especially the three Krobo districts.
“The original operational areas, which are Lower Manya Krobo, Upper Manya Krobo, Yilo Krobo and parts of Asuogyaman, are now saturated and we have to expand to new areas to grow more money to assist the people to reduce poverty in the system,” the managing director stated.
To rope in more customers, especially operators of small-scale businesses, in the new operational areas, the bank, which is one of the three rural banks to embrace the e-zwich system of banking, has decided to make that facility available to commercial enterprises such as fuel filling stations.
Mr Antwi, who recently addressed members of some of the communities to drum home the benefits of banking, stated that the bank was prepared to assist them only if they would honour their obligations to regularly pay back the loans.
The people in the new operational areas, as expected, have hailed the bank’s initiatives, which they consider as the only way to boost their businesses and generate appreciable incomes for their livelihood.
The Chief of Ashiyie, Nii Emmanuel Annang, who was appreciative of the bank’s financial packages, advised the people to promptly repay their loans to enable others to also benefit from the facility.
The bank’s expansion programme can be attributed to its successes over the years, which had placed it in Club 100 (the 100 most viable commercial enterprises in the country).
At its recent annual general meeting at Odumase-Krobo, during which the brain behind its establishment, Mrs Elsie Sowah, who also served on the board for a number of years, was honoured, the Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mr B.T. Apo, said the bank’s deposits increased from GH¢3,197,504 in 2006 to GH¢4,306.671 in 2007.
It also recorded a pre-tax profit of GH¢121,308 in 2007 as against GH¢144,456 the previous year while investments hiked from GH¢949,852 to GH¢1,376,825 within the same period.
Mr Apo stated that during the same period, it honoured its social responsibility by offering scholarships valued at GH¢18,513 to a number of brilliant, needy students.
The Manager of the Finance Department of the ARB Apex Bank, Mr Kwaku Ababio, who deputised for the Managing Director, Mr Eric Osei-Bonsu, was appreciative of the successes chalked up by the bank.
He, however, appealed to the directors, management and staff of the bank to work extra hard to achieve its targets.
Despite such a remarkable achievement, the bank is faced with some challenges, namely, refusal of loan beneficiaries to repay and poaching of its trained staff by other well-established financial institutions.
It also needs more shareholders, especially institutional investors, to boost its equity and to be on its feet to cater well for the people, especially in respect of social responsibility.
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