ATIWA BANK GRANTS GH¢2,061,009 AS LOANS TO CUSTOMERS (SEPT 26, PAGE 51)

THE Atiwa Rural Bank last year granted GH¢2,061,009 as loans and overdrafts to its customers as against GH¢1,706,020 given out for the same purposes in 2007.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, Mr Isaac Akomaning Asamoah, made this known when he addressed the annual general meeting of the bank at Kwabeng, the bank’s headquarters.
The bank serves three districts, namely Atiwa, East Akyem and some parts of Fanteakwa, which together, formed a very big area with agriculture as its mainstay.
Giving a breakdown of the loans and the overdrafts, Mr Asamoah stated that micro-finance had GH¢148,086, transport GH¢148,716, construction GH¢41,112, agriculture GH¢47,388, commerce GH¢583,134, and others GH¢1,091,432.
He said the bank had decided to increase its loan and overdraft portfolios to enable customers to also benefit from its successes in its overall performance during the period.
Some of the gains made by the bank, the board chairman stated, were hikes in pre-tax profit from GH¢94,653 in 2007 to GH¢109,653 in 2008, total deposits GH¢3,234,320 to GH¢3,864,351, investments GH¢1,348,731 to GH¢1,601,710, total assets 3,800,517 to GH¢4,537,086 and treasury bills GH¢1,348,731 to GH¢1,601,701, all within the same period.
According to the board chairman, since the bank was growing, its agencies had to be operating from suitable buildings, so a storey building had been purchased at a cost of GH¢400,000 to house the Koforidua branch, while renovation works were on-going on the Begoro agency.
He added that the Begoro project was in line with the requirements for the bank’s participation in the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) projects.
The Managing Director of the ARB Apex Bank, Mr Eric Osei-Bonsu, commended the board, management, staff and shareholders of the bank for the good showing of the bank, but stressed the need for an effective risk management system for its day-to-day operations to check fraud.
Mr Osei-Bonsu also dwelt on various aspects of rural banking and advised the board and the management of the bank to institute training schemes for the staff to prevent them from joining the big banks.
He also urged them to build a good corporate image to ensure loyalty of customers to patronise the bank’s products.