Juaben Community Bank makes strides
The Juaben Community Bank in the Ashanti Region has been making an impact on the lives of its customers and the people in the catchment area since its inception 32 years ago.
Advertisement
Aside from providing the needed funds for its clients to support their businesses, the bank continues to extend development to communities in its area of operation in the areas of education, health, sanitation, as well as security.
Although it is the 93rd rural bank to be licensed by the Bank of Ghana, the Juaben Community Bank has, since its launch in October 1984, built a reputation as one of the leading community banks in the country.
Headquartered in Juaben, it has nine agencies in Ejisu, Kwadaso, Bonwire, Aboaso, Fumesua, Atimatim and three others in the Kumasi metropolis, namely, Roman Hill, Magazine New road and Sepe Timpom.
In 2013, the bank was recognised for its commitment to quality, leadership, technology and innovation and was awarded the International Star Award for Quality Convention (Gold Category) in
The same year, the West African Regional Magazine honoured it with the Annual Achievers Award as the Most Profitable Rural Financial Institution in the Ashanti Region.
In 2010 and 2011, the Ghana Business and Financial Services Excellence Awards rewarded the bank with bronze for being the best in deposit mobilisation and the Most Effective Rural Bank.
Between 2006 and 2014, the bank received four gold, one bronze and two silver awards for being the Best Rural Bank in Advisory Services, in recognition of its immense contribution to the economic development of the Ashanti Region.
Speaking to the GRAPHIC BUSINESS, the General Manager of the bank, Mr Noble Kwabena Agyei-Poku, attributed the various successes chalked up by the bank to the dedication and commitment of the staff and management.
Training/ CSR
The bank has been organising regular in-service training for its staff on good customer service to promote good customer relations.
To ensure that clients get the best from their investments, it occasionally assists customers with training in best business practices such as proper record keeping, stock control and good management practices to enable them to derive value for their investment.
As the bank’s contribution towards the development of its catchment area, it has, for the past five years, spent more than GH¢650,000 on various projects as part of its corporate social responsibility.
To ensure the advancement of education in its catchment area, it has instituted a GH¢60,000 annual scholarship package to support brilliant, needy students in various senior high schools and tertiary institutions across the country.
In the area of health, the bank has been providing support for various institutions and communities to promote quality health care.
Support
It has also provided mechanised water systems and toilet facilities for some institutions and communities in its catchment area to ease the burden on the people who used to struggle before getting access to quality water and toilet facilities.
As part of activities marking its 30th anniversary, the staff of the bank embarked on a clean-up exercise in various communities where the bank operates.
The board members joined the staff to clean, mop and weed around the Juaben Government Hospital.
To improve quality health care delivery at Juaben and its surrounding communities, the bank is constructing a state-of-the- art X-ray department for the Juaben Government Hospital. The completion of the facility would ease the burden of the people who have to travel to Kumasi and other districts to have access to X-ray services. The one-storey project which is about 60 per cent completed is expected to be completed next year.
Challenges
Mr Noble Agyei-Poku described the recent ‘dumso’ in the country as a major challenge confronting the business sector, including customers of the bank, whose savings had reduced and their ability to repay loan hit a snag.
He explained that the power outages also shot up the overhead cost of the bank.
Share capital
Mr Agyei-Poku lamented the recent introduction of a law which required RCBs to increase their share capital from GH¢300,000 to GH¢500,000 this year and GH¢1,000,000, by 2017, since it would be very difficult for the RCBs to raise the money.
He expressed the fear that if the banks were not able to raise GH¢1,000,000 as share capital by 2017 as required by the BoG, it would lead to acquisitions and mergers which could result in problems.
He appealed to the government to slow down on the spate of changes it was bringing into the banking sector, saying as of 2015, only 17 out the 140 RCBs had been able to raise the GH¢500,000 as share capital.
Mr Agyei-Poku cautioned that any attempt to merge some RCBs because they were not able to meet the required share capital could lead to job losses, since the new owners might select only few people to manage the various units of the new bank.
He was unhappy about the attempt by the BoG to increase the corporate tax from eight to 25 per cent, which he said would lead to the collapse of RCBs because it was the same profit the banks ploughed back into their operations.