Don’t be enticed by mouth-watering interest rates - Public cautioned
The Omanhene of the Dormaa Traditional Area, Osagyefo Oseadeyo Agyeman Badu II, has asked Ghanaians to learn lessons from the DKM Microfinance saga and refuse to be enticed by ‘mouth-watering’ interests on savings offered by fraudulent financial institutions.
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“Let us be very cautious before investing our money with the expectation of getting whopping interest rates from micro-finance companies who are going about with such enticing interests,” he said.
Osagyefo Agyeman Badu, who was speaking at the official opening of a new office of the Agricultural Development Bank (ADB) at Dormaa-Ahenkro last Friday said it was unfortunate that Ghanaians had allowed themselves to be duped by dubious microfinance companies in the last few years.
The Dormaa-Ahenkro branch of the ADB began operations in 1976 in a small facility and over the past four decades the volume of transactions has outgrown the available space at its previous location.
There were many instances, especially at the end of the month when the banking hall becomes choked resulting in winding queues in front of the hall.
It is as a result of this that the bank moved into a new office building provided by the Dormaa Traditional Council to provide convenience to its customers and to enhance its operations.
Habit of savings
Osagyefo Oseadeyo Agyeman Badu urged Ghanaians to cultivate the habit of savings in order to secure their future.
He also attributed the collapse of banks in the country to the non-payment of loans and pleaded with beneficiaries of such loans to honour their obligations.
Osagyefo Agyeman Badu also urged beneficiaries to use the money for the purpose for which they were contracted to enable them pay on time.
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MD of ADB
In his address, the Managing Director of ADB, Dr John Kofi Mensah, announced that the bank had completed test trials of its VISA Prepaid Card Service and explained that one did not need to be a customer to obtain the card.
“Anybody can walk into any of our 78 locations in the country and simply register and load any amount of money onto his/her ADB VISA Prepaid card and with the card, a customer can make purchases online as well as transact business at any VISA Point of Sale (POS) throughout the world.
According to Dr Mensah, the bank has also received approval from VISA International to introduce ADB VISA Credit Cards onto the Ghanaian market and encouraged customers to be on the lookout for it and other innovative, tailor-made products to be rolled-out in the course of the year.
Poultry industry
He acknowledged the importance of Dormaa-Ahenkro to the poultry industry in the country and pledged the bank’s support to poultry farmers in the area.
“We were happy for Mr Ibrahim Musa, one of our Dormaa-Ahenkro based poultry customers who emerged as the 2015 Best National Farmer.
Our desire is to grow the business of many more so we can together produce more award winners from Dormaa Ahenkro.”
Dr Mensah said the bank intended to increase its investment in the poultry industry through the provision of working capital for the purchases of day old chicks, feed and feed ingredients, poultry infrastructure to provide both backward and forward linkages to poultry farming.
“ADB will soon earmark a special funding scheme dubbed: ‘Funding for the Middle Class in Agriculture’ to give a new face to the sector, complement government’s effort and create jobs for our unemployed youth.”
He thanked the Dormaa Traditional Council for its assistance to the branch over the years and appealed to people in the area to continue to patronise the bank’s services.
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