Mponua Rural Bank Limited makes strides
The Mponua Rural Bank Limited made a profit after tax of GH¢844,471 in 2016 as compared to GH¢604,586 in 2015, representing 39.68 per cent increase.
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Total assets rose from GH¢ 15,109,896 in 2015 to GH¢18,903,361 in 2016 representing 25.11 per cent increase, while investments also rose from GH¢7, 751,133 to GH¢11,753,950 within the same period.
The Chairman of the Board of Directors of the bank, Mr George Ameyaw, announced these at the 23rd Annual General Meeting of the bank held at Amoana Praso in the Eastern Region.
Mr Ameyaw said Ghana’s economy in 2016 went through challenging times that largely indicated tight monetary stance, high inflation, high interest rates and depreciating exchange rate with the backdrop low production, power outages, low commodity prices tied up with competitions from telecommunication companies that operated mobile money services, yet, the bank was able to make profit.
Operational result
Touching on the bank’s deposits, he said, it went up from GH¢12,381,251 in 2015 to GH¢15,322,736, representing 23.75 increase.
He noted that stated capital grew steadily over the years through more share purchases with a significant sum of GH¢567,373 purchased in 2016 and that, according to him, was an indication of confidence that shareholders and customers have in the Mponua Rural Bank.
The Chief of Amoana- Praso, Nana Opoku Agyeman II, (sitting middle) with some of the dignitaries and board members of the bank.
Mr Ameyaw emphasised the hike in corporate tax for Rural and Community Banks (RCBs) from eight per cent to 25 per cent and appealed to the government to consider restoring the corporate tax rate for RCBs to the eight per cent.
“Government can direct that the 17.0 percentage point difference between the new and old tax rate is earmarked for increasing the capitalisation of rural and community banks over the next five years.”
Image of the bank
Mr Ameyaw said the bank continued to operate with stiff competition from the universal banks and other microfinance institutions, as well as the infiltration of the telecommunication industry, in the electronic funds transfer business.
A group photograph of Board members of the Mponua Rural Bank.
The board and management in the wake of the unfavourable economic conditions adopted potent policies and programmes to ensure efficient and viable operations to win some awards.
The bank, according to him, was rated “strong” throughout the four quarters of 2016 and ranked sixth among RCBs as against ninth in 2015 as assessed by the ARB Apex Bank.
“Our bank was also adjudged the first runner-up as the best compliant RCB, 2015 at the second excellence award by the Association of Rural Banks, Ghana, held last year at Winneba,” he added.
Social responsibility
The bank, according to Mr Ameyaw, as part of its social responsibilities, has given back to the communities within their catchment areas in terms of education and other social needs such as supporting brilliant, needy students, providing farming inputs for farmers and many others.
The Chief of Amuana - Praso, Nana Opoku Agyeman II addressing shareholders of the Mponua Rural Bank
The bank, he said, provided farming inputs to the Asante Akim South and Birim North district assemblies and Kwahu West Municipality during the 2016 National Farmer’s Day celebration.
Challenges
On the challenges facing the bank, he noted that loans and overdraft facilities disbursed amounted to GH¢6.27 million in 2016 as against GH¢5.95 million recorded in 2015, representing an increase of 5.0 per cent.
The credit facilities, according to him, were granted to all the economic sectors with the bulk benefiting trading, salaried workers and agriculture.
The outstanding balance, he disclosed, declined by 4.36 per cent to GH¢3.71 million at the end of 2016 from GH¢ 3.38 million at the end of 2015.
Future outlook
To further expand operations and improve the performance of the bank, the board chairman said the bank would open an agency of the bank at Konongo by the close of this year.
The bank, he said, would continue with the facelift of some agency premises to acceptable standards and progress work on the Amuana Praso Project, the bank’s head office.
Two of the four founders of the bank, Nana Marfo Ahenkora II (left), the Krontihene of Amoana-Praso and Mr Samuel Lincoln Ofori-Owusu Amuana
The bank would also rebrand some existing products and services and introduce electronic products.
He also stated that the bank would modernise its operating systems and procedures to be in tune with emerging technology in banking.
Congratulatory speech
In his address, the Managing Director of the ARB Apex Bank, Mr Kojo Mattah, commended the board, management and staff of the Mponua Rural Bank for the many successes chalked up.
“The profit achieved by your bank last year and other healthy financial indicators details of which are disclosed in the chairman’s reports are all sufficient management of resources of the bank,” he added.
He, therefore, called on all the staff of the bank on the need to deliver quality services to customers.
Mr Matta said the ARB Apex Bank, being the central bank for rural and community banks, has put in place measures to ensure there were smooth banking services for all RCBs across the country.
Some of these measures, he said, included ATM project implementation, mobile money, moneygram credit operations, collection platform, Datacentre cost and many more.
According to him, all these would help ease pressure from the RCBs and also all customers for easy accessibility.
Auditors’ report
The auditors’ report stated that the financial statement of the Mponua Rural Bank Limited presented, which comprises the statement of financial position as at December 31, 2016, comprehensive income, changes in equity and cash flows for the year ended and notes to financial statements, included a summary of significant accounting.