South Akim Rural Bank opens new branch at Adweso
The South Akim Rural Bank Limited, with its headquarters at Nankese, near Suhum in the Eastern Region, has opened another branch at Adweso in the Koforidua Municipality.
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The opening of the new branch brings to seven the number of agencies being operated by the bank.
In an address, the Chairman of the board of directors of the bank, Mr William Kwodwo Boateng, said despite challenges and competition faced by the bank in its catchment area, it had been able to establish itself as a brand within the area, specially for salaried workers, farmers, traders, artisans, and transport owners among others.
He said these customers had provided significant impetus for tremendous growth in performance since the inception of the bank 30 years ago.
Performance
Mr Boateng said the annual growth of the bank over the past five years ranged between 25 per cent and 65.2 per cent for shareholders’ funds.
Growth in loans, stated capital, total assets and deposits recorded annual averages of 46.2, 44.4, 35.4 and 30.8 per cent respectively.
In 2010, the bank made profit before tax of GH¢605,823.00 while in 2014, it realised GH¢1,991,509.00, representing 229 per cent over the previous year’s figure, showing appreciable annual growth.
Mr Boateng said the bank had a policy to pay a minimum of 25 per cent of profit after tax to shareholders as dividend, and for 2013 an amount of GH¢378,323.00 was paid.
He promised to sustain the policy on the payment of dividend to shareholders for the 2014 financial year.
Ghana Club 100
According to Mr Boateng, based on the consistent impressive performance of the bank, it continued to be one of the few rural banks whose membership in the Ghana Club 100 since 2002 had been sustained.
"South Akim Rural Bank's continuous membership of Ghana Club 100 for the past 11 years is a significant achievement, since most of the initial companies could not withstand the competition and have fallen out”,
Mr Boateng said the bank had been offering scholarships to needy, brilliant children of shareholders and account holders of the bank who gained admission to senior high schools.
Since 2003, he said, the bank had offered 169 scholarships to such class of people in addition to an ongoing construction of a day secondary school at Nankese-Ningo in the Suhum Municipality.
The New Juaben Municipal Chief Executive, Dr Kwaku Owusu Acheampong, in a keynote address, commended the bank for opening an agency at Adweso and called on customers of the bank to pay back their loans to enable others to also benefit from the bank’s loan scheme.
