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Naara Rural Bank Gives Back To Community

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The Naara Rural Bank [NRB] Limited with its headquarters in the Paga township of the Upper East Region, spent a total of 10,163.00 Ghana cedis in fulfillment of its corporate social responsibility to communities in its operational areas during the 2014 fiscal year. Of the amount, GH¢2,100.00 was spent on Education, GH¢1000.00 on Health while Agriculture and social services received expenditures of GH¢3,760.00 and GH¢3,303.00 respectively.

The Board Chairman of the Bank, Mr. Kweku Ananga made these known in his report to shareholders and customers at the bank’s 25th Annual General Meeting held in Navrongo over the weekend. Giving an overview of the bank’s performance for the year ended 31st December 2014, he noted that the Ghana Cedi was largely weak in the year 2014, depreciating almost 40% against the United States Dollar and other major trading currencies due to the excess demand for these foreign currencies.

Mr. Ananga further noted that inflation within the period went up to 17% at the end of 2014 from 13.5% at the end of 2013. He said “this development in inflation adding to the sharp exchange rate and depreciation of the cedi influenced high increases in transportation and utility cost coupled with the Bank of Ghana prime rate rising from 16% in December 2013 to 21% in December 2014 among other factors, played negatively against the fortunes of the bank”.

According to the Board Chairman, the NRB managed to make some gains amidst the trying times of the period under review. For instance, the bank’s deposits increased by 4.5 percent from GH¢16,001,317.00 in 2013 to GH¢16,713,769.00 by close of 2014. Also, its net profit after tax rose from GH¢747,925.00 in 2013 to GH¢940,699.00 in 2014 indicating a percentage rise of 25.8% while Stated Capital moved up to GH¢488,758.00 in 2014 from a previous GH¢208,521.00 in 2013. However, the total assets of the bank fell from GH¢22,336,689 to GH¢22,023,188 in 2014.

He disclosed that, a total loan balance of GH¢11,744,845.00 represents 53.3% of the Bank’s total assets of GH¢22,023,188. He said recovery of Loans and Advances improved a little during the period resulting from intensive efforts put up by the Board, Management and Staff of the Bank through persistent visitations to loan defaulters. He advised loan defaulters to pay up their indebtedness else the Bank will be compelled to publish the list of loan defaulters and follow it up with court actions to recover all overdue loans. He also announced that, the Board had secured the services of a loans collection expert, Advance Debt Recovery Ghana to help recover the Bank’s outstanding loans.

Mr. Ananga also revealed with joy that the bank’s well-motivated 64-man staff worked effectively bringing their competencies on board making it possible for it to meet the Bank of Ghana Mandatory Capital Requirement of GH¢300,000 for Rural and Community Banks for 2014 . He commended the staff with a promise that the Board and Management will continue to invest in them to improve their knowledge and competencies in the banking sector.

In his keynote address, outgoing Deputy Upper East Regional Minister Mr. Daniel A. Syme entreated the Board and Management of the Naara Rural Bank to introduce new and effective products and policies that will make the make very attractive to both new and existing clients. He also charged the bank to do regular and extensive education campaigns through different channels so as to woo more customers to improve its financial base.

He noted that, the phenomenon of rural banks came about as a panacea to boosting economic activities and encouraging banking in the rural parts of Ghana and was glad many rural and community banks like Naara have blossomed over the years. He pledged that Government for its part will continue to create fertile grounds for properly structured and licensed financial institutions to function. He cautioned shareholders of the bank and the general public to be critical of financial institutions that come promising outrageous interest rates or returns on investments citing the recent happenings in the microfinance sector where firms have either escaped with or mismanaged the hard-earned monies of investors leaving them worse than before.

Making a statement on behalf of the Managing Director of ARB Apex Bank, Mr. James Ackon praised the Bank for placing 31st out of 141 banks based on performance ratings during the period under review and ranking 28th among the same number of 141 banks in respect of Net Worth ratings.

BY: PETER ATOGEWE WEDAM | A1RADIOONLINE.com | GHANA


 

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