More rural and community banks meet BoG’s new capital requirement
Ninety-four (94) out of the 141 Rural and Community Banks in the Country have met the GH¢1 million new capital requirement of the Bank of Ghana (BOG), Mr Kojo Mattah, the Managing Director of the ARB Apex Bank has announced.
He urged the remaining banks, which had not been able to meet the Central Bank’s directive to speed up processes to avoid sanctions.
Mr Mattah said meeting the capital requirement would position the banks well to get bigger opportunities and offers in the banking sector that would enable them to compete effectively with the commercial banks.
Aside that, Mr Mattah also urged the rural banks to tighten their internal security control systems to fight fraud in the sector.
The Managing Director gave the advice in a speech read for him at the 33rd Annual General Meeting of the Nkoranza-Kwabre Rural Bank at Akuma, in the Nkoranza Municipality of Brong-Ahafo Region.
Mr Mattah said the BOG would have no option than to merge rural banks that could not meet the operational requirement and reminded the banks on the need for them to appoint compliance officers as directed by the central bank.
The compliance officers would be responsible for detecting and controlling risk to fight fraud in their perorations.
Mr Kofi Sarfo Kantanka, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Kwabre Rural Bank said the bank realized an income surplus of GH¢143,144.00 in 2017, an improvement over the previous year loss of GH¢30,717.00.
He said it also recorded deposits amounting to GH¢6,783,349.00.
Last year, the bank offered GH¢4,197,251.00 as loans and advances to customers as against the previous year’s figure of GH¢2,480,073.
Its capital also jumped from GH¢209,996.00 to GH¢331,070.00, whilst total assets rose from GH¢6,258,739.00 to GH¢8, 244,717.00.
Mr Kantanka said the bank’s investment recorded GH¢1,733,281.00, adding that, share holders funds also rose from GH¢258,565.00 to GH¢415,356.00.
He said the bank was determined to ensure that shareholders and customers embrace, support and invest into the government’s economic policies, such as the Planting for Food and Jobs.
Mr Frank Dwamena-Mensah, the General Manager of the Bank, advised customers to remain loyal with the bank and be wary of mushrooming financial institutions giving out “juicy” interest rates which could not be sustainable.
Source: GNA