Kwamanman Rural Bank begs shareholders to increase stake

The Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kwamanman Rural Bank, Mr Joseph Ofori-Amanfo, has pleaded with the shareholders to increase their shareholding to enable it to meet the capital adequacy ratio.

He said they needed to pull together to fix the “capitalization albatross facing the bank before they are overtaken by events”.

Addressing the 18th annual shareholders general meeting of the bank at the Saint Andrews Anglican Church at Kwamang in the Sekyere Central District, he said it faced a real threat from its weak capital structure.

The bank in real terms has not attained the required stated capital of GH¢150,000.00 set by the regulator – Bank of Ghana (BOG).

Mr Ofori-Amanfo said the capital found in its account was mainly owned by the staff of the bank, whose provident fund had been converted to stated capital.

He said this arrangement is beset with ownership implications and governance of the bank, which do not provide much comfort for us as shareholders.

He said from the look of things, it is clear that the BOG will soon raise the stated capital of Rural and Community Banks and this will pose a very big challenge for the bank.

On the bank’s operational results in 2011, Mr Ofori-Manfo said it recorded an appreciable annual profit before tax of GH¢271,785.02 as compared with the previous year’s figure of GH¢146,915.93.

Deposits also rose from GH¢8,102,747.55 to GH¢11,794,337.11 during the period under review, with total assets going up to GH¢12,954,523.94 from GH¢8,806,855.29.

Loans granted stood at GH¢6,317,989.12 as against the year 2010 figure of GH¢4,014,154.91.

Mr Ofori-Amanfo called on loan beneficiaries to make sure that they paid back on schedule to allow the facility to be extended to others.

Source: GNA