Adansi Rural Bank in the Ashanti Region increased its stated capital from Gh¢290,939.20 in 2012 to GH¢678,976.77 in 2013. This represents an increase of 133.37 per cent.
The 2013 amount is higher than the Bank of Ghana’s stated capital of GH¢300, 000.00 for every rural bank.
Shareholders fund also increased from GH¢2,693,951.25 in 2012 to GH¢3,795,194.67 the year after. This represents an increase of 40.88 per cent during the year under review.
The Board Chairman of the Adansi Rural Bank Limited, Alhaji Ahmed Kwame Boakye, announced this at the bank’s annual general meeting at Adansi in the Ashanti Region.
“The bank made a profit before tax of GH¢1,033,316.02 in 2013 representing a decrease of 2.5 per cent from the GH¢1,060,230.16 it recorded in 2012”, Alhaji Boakye said and attributed the decrease to some write offs the bank embarked upon during the year under review to keep a clean book.
Consequently, the directors recommended a dividend payment of GH¢0.0534 per share for 2013 as against GH¢0.087 in 2012,. This brought the total proposed dividend to GH¢416,634.09 as against GH¢341, 432.02 in 2012. It represents an increase of 22 per cent over the previous year.
Alhaji Boakye indicated that the bank’s non-performing assets stood at GH¢723,882.19 as at December 31, representing 5.25 per cent of the total loan portfolio. He used the opportunity to urge all loan defaulters to settle their outstanding indebtedness to the bank to avoid any punitive measures against them.
Shareholders voted unanimously to accept the dividend declared, allowances of directors and also to empower the directors to change the external auditors as required by the Bank of Ghana regulations which stated that after every five years, the external auditors must be changed.
For his part, the Regional Manager of the ARP Apex Bank, Mr George Annor, said the Adansi Rural Bank was adjudged the 18th best rural bank out of the 138 rural banks in the country for its sterling performance in 2013.
He called on rural banks to put in stringent measures to save their branches from being used for money laundering to fund terrorists acts and the purchase of weapons.
He also advised them to educate their staff about the new phenomenon of money laundering and its consequences on the country.
He called on the board of directors not to shirk their responsibility but constantly ensure that there was good corporate governance to protect the interest of the shareholders.
Prof Stephen Addei, a former Rector of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), appealed to management of the bank to ensure a constant flow of information to prevent rumours and unfounded allegations.
He commended the management for the growth of the bank and urged them to inform the shareholders about some of the major issues to be discussed about three weeks before the day of the annual general meeting.
That, he explained, would ensure that shareholders had ample knowledge and information before they engaged in discussions at the AGM.